Mozambique's wildlife authorities short of 1,500 guards to fight poaching

Wildlife authorities admitted Thursday in Maputo that the protection force is seriously understaffed while poachers now dare to shoot against forest guards to materialize their objectives.

"Poachers are acting aggressively, now they are firing against forest guards but unfortunately we are limited to get protection resources," said Carlos Perreira from the wildlife authorities.

In Niassa Reserve, the largest protected area in the country, the authorities recorded 7 confrontations with poachers and this year up to now 18 elephants have been slaughtered.

"The problem is that we have gaps in the number of wildlife forest guards, each guard is protecting an area of 315 square kilometers," said Perreira.

He said that logically it is impossible for a single person to watch over an area larger than 50 square kilometers, which makes the current shortage at more than 1,500 guards.

"So we need more people and we need to improve our protection mode to a much more sophisticated one," said Perreira.

For an effective protection of endangered species, the authorities agree that they should improve supervision techniques as a whole and that particularly their response capacity needs to be more proactive. Endit