Eswatini has joined regional discussions on Mozambique’s proposal to introduce selective wildlife culling in conservation areas where animal populations have reached levels considered excessive.
The discussions are particularly significant for Eswatini because the Kingdom shares the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area with Mozambique and South Africa, creating a need for coordinated approaches to wildlife management across national borders.
Mozambique is preparing a decree that would regulate selective wildlife culling in designated protected areas as part of efforts to address increasing human-wildlife conflict while maintaining ecological balance. 
Mozambican conservation official Djedje said the proposed framework would allow wildlife populations to be managed in selected conservation areas.
He said the intervention was also intended to ensure that communities living alongside protected areas benefit from the wildlife resources they help preserve.
“We are thinking that this will also be a way of mitigating human-wildlife conflict, but it will also be a way for communities themselves to benefit from the resources that they have been fighting to preserve,” Djedje told journalists.
The proposed culling measures follow a significant increase in wildlife populations in Mozambique following intensified conservation and anti-poaching efforts.
Djedje said Mozambique’s latest national census recorded 22,708 elephants.
“The growth in wildlife numbers shows, on the one hand, the great efforts the country has made to protect this resource, but it also highlights a major challenge in managing this animal,” he said.
Djedje said Mozambique was undertaking a reclassification of its conservation areas to update boundaries established in the 1960s.
He said Mozambique would maintain the same number of parks, reserves, hunting areas and community conservation areas, but would update their sizes and reflect their actual occupation.
The first results of the reclassification exercise are expected to be presented from September.
The review is expected to give authorities a clearer picture of the current conservation landscape and help ensure that protected areas are managed according to present-day realities
