Peace Parks, a South African organization specializing in biodiversity protection in transboundary conservation areas, has introduced six safe cattle grazing areas for communities living inside the Limpopo National Park, in the Massingir district, Gaza province, southern Mozambique.

This is an initiative that, according to Peace Parks, aims to significantly reduce the rates of human-wildlife conflict.

Budgeted at just over 5 million dollars, the safe and healthy pastures project includes components such as water holes to water the cattle and communities, rotational grazing, mobile corals, called "bomas", which not only protect the animals from feline attacks, but also concentrate the cattle in the same space to better control theft.

The initiative also includes animal health care, with the introduction of fortified feed for the cattle at the height of the pasture shortage, allowing the animal to grow healthily and reach the maximum weight that gives the breeders an advantage when selling the animals at the trade fairs periodically organized in Massingir.

For Délcio Julião, manager of the "Heading for Health" project, supported by "Peace Parks", which introduced safe grazing in Massingir, the initiative not only reduced human-wildlife conflict by stopping attacks on cattle by wild animals, but also resolved the issue of balancing ecosystems within the park, since there was competition for grazing between wild and domestic animals.

"We've introduced the rotating block grazing plan to allow restoration to take place. We've also introduced mobile corals which are bomas, which are important for the safety of the cattle, especially during the dead of night. We have hired professional and trained shepherds. With these actions, predators can't attack the cattle," said Délcio Julião, quoted by AIM.

(Photo DR)