Recently Dave has spent a lot of time flying in Niassa
Reserve, located in the northwestern part of Mozambique.
Oftentimes we are flying for conservation
groups based in the reserves.
Dave and I
both come from a natural resource background and we value mankind’s
responsibility to take care of God’s creation (Gen. 1:28).
Several years ago we enjoyed staying several
days in the reserve to enjoy the magnificence of God’s creation in Mozambique (check out the blog at
Lions and Hippos and Elephants, Oh My!).
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| Elephant in Niassa Reserve |
Because of our flying for these groups, relationships have formed
which have allowed us to further our ministry opportunities. We now have a medical project that is located
in the reserve and is partially sponsored by one of the conservation groups
based in the reserve. They help cover
the cost of flights that bring a medical team and supplies to remote villages
located within the reserve. These
partnerships show that they value both people and wildlife. Just two weeks ago, Dave flew a medical team
in the Caravan out to Gomba and Eravuka.
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| Medical Team leaving on the Caravan |
Last week Dave was flying the 206 to help one conservation group’s
effort with anti-poaching, with elephants being their primary concern.
I’m not sure if the statistic is true, but we
have heard it said that if poaching continues at its current rate, in 5 years there will
no longer be elephants in Northern Mozambique. We have already seen the elephant population
greatly decline in the almost-six years we have lived here.
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| 206 at the airstrip |
It has been notable that there is less poaching on days that
an airplane is patrolling the area.
Thankfully, the reserve will be getting their own airplane soon and be able to
have a more consistent presence.
When
Dave arrived on Monday morning, there had been reports of shots fired the night before, so they wanted to fly over the area of concern.
Sure enough, some carcasses were located.
Scouts were on the ground trying to track the
poachers and also found additional carcasses.
In the afternoon of the following day, there were no scheduled flights,
so Dave was able to tag along with the scouts and enforcement manager to
see if they could find the carcasses they had spotted from the air.
Unfortunately, rather than finding the ones
that had been flown over, they found a different group of carcasses, meaning in
total at least 6 elephants had been killed.
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Elephant carcasses from the air are difficult to spot
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**WARNING: These images are DISTURBING but show the reality of poaching. We have chosen
to link them to a different page so you can choose if you would like to view
them**
If you want to learn a little more about conservation
efforts in Niassa, check out this video:
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| Sunset at Niassa |
