KASUNGU NATIONAL PARK IN MALAWI

◾Kasungu National Park forms part of a transfrontier conservation area that extends from Zambia into Malawi. It is a previous poaching hotspot where authorities have spent the past five years strengthening enforcement in collaboration with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

◾Kasungu National Park, Malawi’s second largest at 2,100 km2 (810 mi2), was home to more than 1,200 elephants in the 1970s. However, decades of poaching for ivory decimated the elephant population there. There were less than 50 elephants left.

◾In July 2022, 263 elephants were translocated to the park, which forms part of a transfrontier conservation area covering 32,000 square kilometers (12,400 square miles) across Malawi and Zambia.

◾Parks authorities in the two countries, working alongside the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), have invested $8.5 million since 2017 to secure what was previously a hotspot for poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking.

◾Crops that are now being farmed alongside the National Park attract elephants that have been reintroduced. Those farmlands need protection to prevent conflict with elephants from the National Park.

◾I faw, after extensive consultation with local communities, has completed the construction of 91km of fencing along Kasungu National Parks eastern boundary in Malawi, with an additional 40km to be completed in 2024.

◾Alternative cash crops, not favoured by elephants, should be cultivated in conflict hot-spots to prevent human/elephant conflict.

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