Communities living on the boundary of Banhine National Park are reaping the benefits of the park’s operations.
In this week’s PeaceParks.TV episode, we head to Banhine where the park’s co-management partners, Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC) and Peace Parks Foundation, hand over a 650,000 Meticais (approx. $10,000) cheque to community leaders.
The communities will spend the money on projects of their choice, led by existing community leadership committees.
“The protection of biodiversity is not only aimed at securing a healthy planet. We recognise the hardships communities face in accessing resources, so they must be the main beneficiaries of this process. Their involvement isn’t just valuable, it’s vital,” says Director General of ANAC, Pejul Calenga.
“As Banhine doesn’t generate tourism revenue yet, Peace Parks has put money towards this so they can distribute a representation of tourism revenue towards the communities,” explains Peace Parks Programme Manager, Antony Alexander.
The day marked a historic milestone for the communities as this was their first 20% cheque since the park was established over 50 years ago.
“I’m truly grateful for all of this and for the park’s efforts in conserving these resources so that our children can also have them in the future,” said community member Flora Chissongue.
Read more about this here.
