Committed to a New Approach
The Lugenda Wildlife Reserve - also known as Luwire - is the largest privately operated concession block nestled within the Niassa Special Reserve, a protected area in northern Mozambique larger than the state of Denmark.
With a scale that would make it Mozambique's second largest National Park, the Lugenda Wildlife Reserve boasts 4,500 square kilometres (445,500 Ha) of dense miombo woodlands, breathtaking granite inselbergs, open savannah, wetlands, river flood plains and riverine forest, and hosts around 300km of beautiful Lugenda River riverfront.
Unlike many reserves where communities exist and are managed in buffer zones outside of reserve boundaries, the Lugenda Wildlife Reserve community exists right in the heart of the reserve. Currently, 6 villages - over 5,000 individuals - directly benefit from a 50,000 hectare community-dedicated corridor of prime reserve area.
In spite of critical challenges, including a wide-spread regional elephant poaching crisis between 2011 and 2018, community engagement has always been at the center of Luwire’s approach to sustainable conservation.
Community-owned Conservation
Building on twenty-five years of conservation engagement and trust-building with the Lugenda Wildlife Reserve communities, the Lugenda Foundation was established in June 2023 as a conduit for strengthening partnerships and philanthropic investment in conservation and reserve-based community.
The Lugenda Foundation leads Luwire's innovative transition of ownership and conservation responsibility to the community.
The Lugenda Wildlife Reserve's commercial activities' profits are invested directly into community, including direct cash benefits to households as of 2024. At the same time, the Lugenda Foundation strengthens the resilience of communities through enhanced livelihood opportunities and social development initiatives.
Our Focus Areas
Impact
Measuring Success Through Our Achievements
COMMUNITY SCOUT INITIATIVE
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
Transitioning from primary law enforcement focus, including formation of all female community troop and community guardians.
$750,700
COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT INVESTMENT
150 full time employees &
150-300 seasonal employees.
CLIMATE-SMART
RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS
Safari camps fully solarized.
Climate-smart agriculture implemented in Protected Agricultural Units (PAUs).
CONSERVATION
ART
FULL SIZE ELEPHANT SCULPTURES
Created using illegal poaching and mining materials collected by scouts.
1203
HOUSEHOLDS REACHED
Receiving an annual direct cash benefit from Lugenda Wildlife Reserve commercial income.
Get Involved
Key philanthropic partnerships and unrestricted giving are vital to the reserve and the Lugenda Foundation's strategic implementation of a community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) led approach that:
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Engages community toward recognising themselves as the primary sharehoIders in natural resource management,
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Measures community and environmental resilience,
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Understands evidence-based impacts of "doing conservation" through both commercial and philanthropic activities, and
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Increases opportunities and investment within the reserve for both people and natural resources.
The Lugenda Foundation is a Mozambican registered non-profit. To strengthen partnership opportunities, the Lugenda Foundation has partnered with a US 501(c)(3) in the US to support funding and partnerships that provide non-restricted, or less restricted, funding through a trust-based philanthropic approach.