Connections are everything, both in the human and natural worlds. A superb new wild connection was announced this week by Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) and the Government of Mozambique. The Futi Corridor is a historic wildlife migration route between South Africa and Mozambique, for which The WILD Foundation and many others working in the region have advocated for many years. The dream is now a reality.
In a joint announcement of this most recent conservation accomplishment within the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (“peace park”), PPF and Mozambique announced full protection of the Futi Corridor, connecting Ndumo and Tembe Game Reserves in South Africa with the Maputo Special Elephant Reserve 33 miles (50km) to the north.
This critical initiative adds 24,000 ha (60,000 acres) to Mozambique’s protected areas, restoring landscape connectivity for the first time in over 50 years so that elephants and other wildlife can resume their historic migrations. Such a move not only benefits wildlife, but it assists the local communities by ensuring better ecological services (that support and enhance all life) from this important and extensive seasonal wetland, and creates an unusual new draw for tourism.
This area on the Edge of the Indian Ocean will be the end point of In the Tracks of Giants , an expedition (and a Nature Needs Half initiative) crossing Southern Africa in 2012.