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Niassa Lion Project
A future for Lions: Niassa Lion Project, Mozambique
You can help the Niassa Lion Project by donating:
$25 Prints 2 Niassa Conservation Storybooks for school children
$60 Pays for one child to visit Environmental centre for 3 days
$100 Builds 2 predator safe guinea-fowl breeding pens
$250 Pays the salary of the extension officer for a month
$400 Buys a radio-collar to keep track of lions near villages
Click here for an Amazon Wishlist for the lions
The lions and the project
Lions once roamed freely across most parts of Africa. Having already disappeared from northern Africa, they are now found only in parts of southern and eastern Africa and in the southern part of the Sahara desert. With only 23,000-40,000 lions remaining in the wild, the African lion population is only a fractionof what it was in the early 1950s. Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve is home to one of only five healthy lion populations left on the continent.
Niassa National Reserve is located in northern Mozambique on the border with Tanzania. It is one of the largest protected areas in Africa (42,000 km²) and is considered to be one of the “Last Wild Places” and most undeveloped areas in Africa. Time is running out to conserve the Niassa lions, as well as the Reserve’s significant populations of leopard, spotted hyena and African wild dog.
The conservation of lions in particular touches on many of the major ecological and social challenges facing Niassa National Reserve at present. The Reserve is home to a growing human population of 30,000 residents in forty villages on the verge of modern development. The costs to communities living with lions and large carnivores are significant through the loss of life, livelihoods and livestock.
Similarly, people pose serious threats to the lions, including retaliatory killing as a result of human-lion conflict, indiscriminate snaring, sport hunting of underage individuals, and disease risks, particularly rabies and canine distemper spread from domestic dogs. Roads, not yet extensive, are already resulting in road kill.
The Niassa Carnivore Project has been working since 2003 exclusively in the Niassa Reserve. Researchers have been tracking and vaccinating lions and working with the locals on how to safely live with Lions.
Community outreach and education
One of the methods for community outreach and education that the project is involved with is called “Lion fun days.” The entire Niassa Carnivore project team got together and came up with activities, games, and puzzles for the children of Mbamba, Mozambique to take part in. The idea is to teach the children about the importance of Carnivores in their ecosystem through fun and engaging activities. The children paint animal masks, run relay races, acted out plays and engaged in many other activities. They also participated in a special eco-system tug of war game.
"The majority of people in Niassa believe their lives would be better without lions, elephants and leopards. We wanted to spark some thoughts on what the consequences might be if these animals were all to disappear from Niassa. Would it matter if all the lions or elephants were gone? We divided the children into two teams for a ‘tug of war” using our tow rope with each child representing different elements of the ecosystem – lions, leopards, elephants, honey badgers, eagles, bees, trees, grass flowers, fish, sunlight, rain etc. One side was the reserve and the other an unprotected area. Initially the tug of war was equal but as more and more elements disappeared, some connected to each other resulting in a cascade of effects, the unprotected team started to fall apart while the Reserve team was still strong and pulling together.” says Colleen Begg of the Niassa Lion Project. At the end of the day the children bring home solid conservation messages to their parents from these activities and crafts.
Coexistence
Have you ever needed to keep lions out of your garden?
Mozambiquians face lion attacks during the dry season and are finding ways to safely coexist with this large predator.
The dry season is also crop planting season and although locals kn
ow to avoid being out at night during this time pests that invade thier gardens force them to venture outside after dark against their better judgement. Wart hogs and bush pigs raid crops and the lions are usually following closely behind. The people come out to scare the pigs and warthogs off and hungry lions are often there waiting.
ow to avoid being out at night during this time pests that invade thier gardens force them to venture outside after dark against their better judgement. Wart hogs and bush pigs raid crops and the lions are usually following closely behind. The people come out to scare the pigs and warthogs off and hungry lions are often there waiting.
They work closely with communities in the local area and have introduced a locally sustainable solution called “living fences”. They started a program called “good fences make good neighbours” to trial and introduce the idea and it is spreading like wildfire.
How do you build a lion proof fence? First, you find the thorniest native plant in all the land. African Myrr is the preferred choice, and seems to make an effective barrier. Then, simply cut branches off a living bush, densely plant them around the garden area and allow to grow. This technique is reducing crop damage by the local herbivores and has even detoured elephants.This effective program has taken on a life of its own. Communities across Niassa National Reserve are asking community members that have existing fences for clippings to start their own. The people have discovered that the fencing can also serve as a great goat corral.
The Niassa Lion Project is a conservation organization with a mission to secure lions in the Niassa National Reserve by reducing human-induced threats and promoting co-existence between lions and people.
