Limpopo

Limpopo National Park was established in 2001 in south-western Mozambique, in Gaza province and next to the South African border, and protects some 10,000 km² of mopane savannah, dry woodland and the floodplains of the Limpopo and Shingwedzi rivers.

Its creation was part of a project on a continental scale: in December 2002 the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe signed the treaty that established the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, joining this park with South Africa's Kruger and with Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe in a block of some 35,000 km². The removal of sections of the border fence between Mozambique and South Africa allowed wildlife to move freely again across a territory the border had divided for decades.

The park was very impoverished in wildlife after the Mozambican civil war, and between 2001 and 2006 thousands of animals, elephants included, were moved from Kruger to speed up recolonisation. The main challenge has been social: thousands of people lived in several villages within its boundaries, and the resettlement process, protracted and not free of conflict, has shaped the park's history.