As the world’s 35^th largest country, Mozambique is a melting pot of diversity. Its geography remains an alluring facet, and perhaps this is thanks to its extensive coastline, among the longest of those nestling against the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Though that said, another fact is true for this southern African country: it still has a way to go to recover the 70%+ wildlife lost in the last four decades.
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To begin recovery, one must first assess the critical locations and design a protection and restoration strategy. In doing so, Coutada 5 (C5) has been identified as an ecological corridor between the Indian Ocean and wildlife areas in the hinterland. C5 encompasses 2.2 million acres, boasting its prominence as the country’s largest coutada — a protected area formally used for trophy hunting — and is a critical ecological corridor between the Indian Ocean, the great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, and other protected areas in Zimbabwe and South Africa. C5 is also home to a number of communities whose progressive relationship with nature and wildlife has gone from stable to distressing over time.

Akashinga’s entry point for all projects has been one of observation and research. Understanding the genesis of environmental challenges of this nature, and seeking understanding from stakeholders and prospective partners helped us understand the importance of amplifying conservation in C5’s coastal region.

The entire C5 coastal region features dense, productive mangrove forests which constitute 10% of Mozambique’s mangrove network and offer critical ecosystem protection for both marine and freshwater species such as sea turtles and dugongs. Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species are on the C5 coast, and all are threatened with extinction. Dugongs, on the other hand, come away from their reserved nature from time to time, to make themselves seen, though scientists have noted that these dugongs are the last viable population in the South Western Indian Ocean and are now recognized as a critically endangered management unit.

All the same, the C5 coastal shoreline is fundamental for the protection against tidal storms and erosion, and plays a pivotal role in carbon sequestration. This September, Akashinga will be training community turtle guards as an extended facet of the Akashinga Field Ranger Course, in preparation for the upcoming turtle season. This will be a continuation of the work already started in Mozambique, which has seen 26 Akashinga Rangers trained and recruited in 2023, and an additional 29 enrolled in the current Akashinga cohort which commenced in July 2024.

To ensure the Rangers are well prepared for this coastal conservation work, Akashinga is concurrently set to patrol C5 adjacent islands, Chiloane and Inharringue, for the season, to monitor turtle nesting and hatching. This will be the first ever nesting turtle patrols conducted in the country’s central region, Sofala Province. It’s been a long-awaited, data deficient area for nesting turtle monitoring in the country, a gap Akashinga will now fill.

Working alongside communities of these remote fisheries dependent islands, the nesting beach areas have been selected for dedicated turtle patrols based on reports the community provided on turtle activity and poaching known to occur in the area. Akashinga’s Country Scientist in Mozambique, Dr. Jessica Williams, reports that offshore from C5, a pending biodiversity hotspot (known as a key biodiversity area, KBA) has been nominated, with the triggering factor being it’s an area known to host one of the world’s only populations of year-round coastal water foraging and resident Critically Endangered leatherback sea turtles. In the South-West Indian Ocean, the effective population size for female leatherback turtles is 150 individuals, thereby making any of Akashinga’s efforts in and around C5 that safeguard these animals a significant advancement for increased protection and better management of the population.

“Patrolling these remote island areas, which are thought to be important for nesting and foraging turtles, is an exciting step forward for the expansion of our marine conservation work in Mozambique and will contribute to national efforts to monitor and protect sea turtles throughout extensive sandy nesting beach habitats of the country’s coastline. We are all really excited to see what discoveries remain to be uncovered in the coming months,” says Dr. Jessica Williams.

C5's uniqueness makes it a critical land and seascape, and the deployment of Akashinga Rangers promises to continue yielding positive outcomes for conservation efforts. Increased awareness will garner further support for the region’s nature conservation, and the preservation of the world’s oceans and land-based ecosystems.

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