Project Description
Luwire Wildlife Conservancy is focused on countering wildlife crime in order to safeguard the free-roaming wildlife in the Niassa Reserve and our Block L7 concession in particular. With an area of 4,450 km2 and 275km of Lugenda River frontage, our concession contains a favourable infrastructure of roads (1,200 km), airstrips (9), and camps (6) to support extensive conservation research, monitoring, and evaluation efforts.
Our law enforcement team has been responsible for around 80% of Niassa Reserve’s total anti-poaching arrests, convictions and seizure of illegal firearms and ammunition. They have also recovered large amounts of poached ivory. To tackle the onslaught of poaching in Niassa, Luwire manages 80 scouts, 10 scout bases, rapid reactionary units (RRUs), aerial surveillance, river teams, and a broader intelligence network of informers and alliance partners.
Our short-term conservation objectives include the following:
• Anti-poaching: Tighten security with effective utilization, deterrence, patrol, and presence
• Law enforcement: Provide ongoing 3rd party training services for our scouts in weaponry, hand to hand combat training, surveillance, evidence collection, survival/endurance training, and other related skills to counter wildlife crime
• Human resources: Significantly increase boots-on-the-ground manpower to help manage the vast concession and reduce wildlife crime
• Biodiversity: Formally establish a biodiversity plan to research, evaluate, promote and monitor wildlife
• Land Management: Maintain the health of our pristine waterways and vibrant wilderness status and diversity. Individual species can be re-introduced, but not if scale and base matrix are lost