Tackling Lion Poaching in Limpopo National Park

Tackling Lion Poaching in Limpopo National Park

The Mozambican portion of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area suffers from severe bushmeat poaching, and increasingly, targeted poaching of lions. The LRF approved a grant to support a collaboration between Greater Limpopo Carnivore Program and Limpopo National Park for the deployment of a special Limpopo Lion Protection Unit designed to protect the remaining lions in the park from poaching and to remove all wire snares from the areas in which they live. After major success with the first grant, LRF approved a second grant to allow for an extension of anti-poaching efforts. However, shortly after that GLCP were forced to cease operations in the park, citing risk to personal safety due to a deteriorating security situation. The bulk of the funds from the second grant were transferred to Panthera’s site security project in Kafue National Park in Zambia.