8 September 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's Minister of Tourism, Fernando Sumbana, has dismissed Rudolfo Cumbane from his post as administrator of the Limpopo National Park (PNL), in the southern province of Gaza, because of his poor relations with other members of the PNL staff.
The PNL is the Mozambican section of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also includes the Kruger National Park of South Africa and the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
Sumbana told AIM that during the administration of Cumbane, who was appointed in January 2007, the PNL proved unable to meet its targets, because staff members did not feel any sense of ownership.
"In a place like that the essential point is to know how to manage the team", said Sumbana. "Things were not moving. There was no team work, and it was getting worse. The result was that we were unable to meet the targets we had set for the PNL".
Sumbana acted by replacing Cumbane with Baldeu Chande, who had previously been administrator of the Gorongosa National Park in the central province of Sofala.
"This isn't a routine rotation of staff", said Sumbana. "Since things weren't going well and we didn't want to risk endangering the PNL, we decided to take the immediate measure of removing the administrator, and putting there someone who is competent from the technical point of view, and in terms of relations with the staff, the community and the institutions".
Sumbana also announced that the government is negotiating with the Zimbabwean authorities for the supply of 200 zebras to help restock the Gorongosa park, which lost many of its animals during the war of destabilisation.
However, the negotiations over the zebras had come to a halt because of the political discussions in Zimbabwe between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic change (MDC), seeking to set up a government of national unity.
"There's been a little interruption, because the Zimbabweans are engaged in other matters", said Sumbana. "But they've agreed, in principle, to provide these animals".
Large grazing animals such as zebras, buffalo and wildebeest are essential for maintaining the Gorongosa ecosystem. The first reintroduction of large herbivores was in 2006, when 54 buffalos from the Kruger Park were moved to Gorongosa.
The plan for the Gorongosa park envisages that, by 2015, several thousand buffalo, wildebeest and zebras will be reintroduced, and hundreds of elephants, hippopotamus, kudus and elands.
Once the park can guarantee that they will be safe from poachers, it is also intended to reintroduce white and black rhinoceros.
Under an agreement signed in June, the Gorongosa Park is now jointly managed by the Mozambican government and the American Carr Foundation, which has promised to invest a minimum of 1.2 million dollars a year in the park for the next 20m years.
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