The double treasure of both a marine and a safari reserve

The leatherback turtle, African elephant and the humpback whale are the symbols of Machangulo. Where else in the world is it possible to enjoy a morning on the beach spotting turtles, watching whales breaching and dolphins surfing and spend the afternoon viewing elephant, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, fish eagle, wildebeest and zebra?

“Peace Parks can be the economic engine that drives development for Africa”

The Peace Parks Foundation has lead in two major local conservation projects, the Ponto de Ouro Marine Reserve and the Maputo Special Reserve. Now these have be combined into the Maputo National Park.

Machangulo borders the Maputo National Park and our coastline is part of the marine reserve. We partner with Peace Parks to help nature to flourish along our coastline and throughout the protected area of the Machangulo peninsular.

Sustainable Economic Uplift

A primary objective of Machangulo project is to provide sustainable improvements for the local community in the areas of health, education, food security and employment.

Economic empowerment of the local community and ownership of conservation initiatives are essential to preserve the environment. A guiding principal of the Machangulo project is that nature conservation must go hand-in-hand with sustainable economic uplift for the local community.

Machangulo’s construction activities initially focused on community infrastructure such as schools, medical clinics, community buildings and water supply.
In addition to the direct uplift that the Machangulo investment has provided in terms of health and education, the infrastructure and coastal holiday home construction has provided employment through both construction and ongoing servicing and has resulted in a significant proportion of the local community gaining valuable employment skills and experience. The planned further development of Machangulo as a nature conservation tourist destination will sustainably extend these benefits to the local community and will empower the development of their community and way of life on their own terms.

The nature conservation objective of the Machangulo nature reserve requires that restrictions and control of access are in place to protect the environment but the traditional access of the local community is maintained, especially to their sacred sites, for sustainable foraging and to the beach for fishing.

A major new investment in a sustainable agriculture project is also key to providing food security and income. The project is based on the latest sustainable organic methods whilst providing an attractive alternative to unsustainable slash and burn practices which threaten the conservation of the pristine ecology.