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Building Leaders, Not Just Numbers: New TFCA Ranger Training Launched
2 July 2026
The Administração Nacional das Áreas de Conservação (ANAC), in partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Government of Germany, IUCN and Peace Parks Foundation, is strengthening leadership across four national parks through a targeted development programme for 43 current and emerging protected area leaders. Collectively, these participants oversee approximately 378 rangers responsible for protecting some of southern Mozambique's most important, protected areas.
The initiative supports Banhine, Limpopo and Zinave national parks within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, as well as Maputo National Park within the Lubombo transboundary landscape. Together, these landscapes connect protected areas across Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including Kruger and Gonarezhou national parks.
The initiative supports Banhine, Limpopo and Zinave national parks within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, as well as Maputo National Park within the Lubombo transboundary landscape. Together, these landscapes connect protected areas across Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including Kruger and Gonarezhou national parks.
More rangers on the ground is only part of the conservation equation. The other part is leadership — the people who supervise patrols, coordinate operations and make the calls that keep both wildlife and rangers safe. That is the gap a new training programme launched in Maputo is designed to close.
The Administração Nacional das Áreas de Conservação (ANAC), working with SADC, the IUCN, Peace Parks Foundation and funded by the Government of Germany, has begun a leadership development programme for 43 current and emerging protected area managers across four national parks in southern Mozambique. Between them, these leaders oversee around 378 rangers.
The parks involved are Banhine, Limpopo and Zinave, all part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, plus Maputo National Park in the Lubombo transboundary landscape. Together, these landscapes link protected areas across Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including Kruger and Gonarezhou national parks.
The timing matters. In 2025, ANAC recruited and trained more than 100 new rangers, with a strong proportion of women and post-school-qualified candidates among them. That expansion built up frontline capacity — but it also created a new challenge: those recruits need experienced, capable leaders to guide them as they move into operational roles.
Two pilot training streams are addressing that need, both delivered by the Southern African Wildlife College at the Maputo National Park Training Centre. The Brave-Heart Leadership programme is equipping 26 emerging section and regional ranger leaders with the skills to supervise patrols and lead operational teams — participants who represent roughly 40% of the parks' existing patrol leadership. Running alongside it, the Protected Area Management course is building leadership, law enforcement strategy and management oversight among senior conservation staff, with colleagues from Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe joining in to support cross-border learning.
"This programme demonstrates how SADC member states can work together to increase conservation capacity and share expertise across borders," said Ndapanda Kanime, SADC's Senior Programme Officer for Natural Resources and Wildlife.
Domingos Gove, IUCN's Country Director for Mozambique, noted that IUCN is working closely with SADC member states to identify training needs in each TFCA, and that ANAC has used this first pilot to define two complementary streams to be delivered in July and October.
Antony Alexander, Peace Parks Foundation's Regional Manager for the South, framed the wider stakes: strong conservation isn't just about ranger numbers, but about leaders who can mentor teams, coordinate operations and make sound decisions under pressure — the link that turns recruitment gains into durable protected area management.
The initiative is funded by the Government of Germany through the SADC TFCA Financing Facility (TFCA FF), implemented by KfW Development Bank and IUCN. Germany's Special Representative to SADC, Gabriele Bennemann, described it as part of a longer-term commitment to leadership, accountability and ranger capacity across the region's transboundary landscapes.
Beyond the four parks themselves, the programme feeds into regional commitments under the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park Treaty and the SADC TFCA Programme, both of which call for more consistent, harmonised approaches to wildlife protection and law enforcement across borders.
The TFCA FF has grown steadily since it was established in 2020, recently welcoming the European Union as a second donor through the NaturAfrica Initiative. Combined contributions now stand at approximately €69.7 million, with an ambition to mobilise more than €100 million to secure long-term financing for TFCAs across the region.
As this pilot unfolds in Mozambique, it offers a model other TFCAs may look to as ranger recruitment across the region continues to outpace the leadership structures needed to support it.
Open the PDF for the Portuguese version of the official press release.
The Administração Nacional das Áreas de Conservação (ANAC), working with SADC, the IUCN, Peace Parks Foundation and funded by the Government of Germany, has begun a leadership development programme for 43 current and emerging protected area managers across four national parks in southern Mozambique. Between them, these leaders oversee around 378 rangers.
The parks involved are Banhine, Limpopo and Zinave, all part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, plus Maputo National Park in the Lubombo transboundary landscape. Together, these landscapes link protected areas across Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including Kruger and Gonarezhou national parks.
The timing matters. In 2025, ANAC recruited and trained more than 100 new rangers, with a strong proportion of women and post-school-qualified candidates among them. That expansion built up frontline capacity — but it also created a new challenge: those recruits need experienced, capable leaders to guide them as they move into operational roles.
Two pilot training streams are addressing that need, both delivered by the Southern African Wildlife College at the Maputo National Park Training Centre. The Brave-Heart Leadership programme is equipping 26 emerging section and regional ranger leaders with the skills to supervise patrols and lead operational teams — participants who represent roughly 40% of the parks' existing patrol leadership. Running alongside it, the Protected Area Management course is building leadership, law enforcement strategy and management oversight among senior conservation staff, with colleagues from Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe joining in to support cross-border learning.
"This programme demonstrates how SADC member states can work together to increase conservation capacity and share expertise across borders," said Ndapanda Kanime, SADC's Senior Programme Officer for Natural Resources and Wildlife.
Domingos Gove, IUCN's Country Director for Mozambique, noted that IUCN is working closely with SADC member states to identify training needs in each TFCA, and that ANAC has used this first pilot to define two complementary streams to be delivered in July and October.
Antony Alexander, Peace Parks Foundation's Regional Manager for the South, framed the wider stakes: strong conservation isn't just about ranger numbers, but about leaders who can mentor teams, coordinate operations and make sound decisions under pressure — the link that turns recruitment gains into durable protected area management.
The initiative is funded by the Government of Germany through the SADC TFCA Financing Facility (TFCA FF), implemented by KfW Development Bank and IUCN. Germany's Special Representative to SADC, Gabriele Bennemann, described it as part of a longer-term commitment to leadership, accountability and ranger capacity across the region's transboundary landscapes.
Beyond the four parks themselves, the programme feeds into regional commitments under the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park Treaty and the SADC TFCA Programme, both of which call for more consistent, harmonised approaches to wildlife protection and law enforcement across borders.
The TFCA FF has grown steadily since it was established in 2020, recently welcoming the European Union as a second donor through the NaturAfrica Initiative. Combined contributions now stand at approximately €69.7 million, with an ambition to mobilise more than €100 million to secure long-term financing for TFCAs across the region.
As this pilot unfolds in Mozambique, it offers a model other TFCAs may look to as ranger recruitment across the region continues to outpace the leadership structures needed to support it.
Open the PDF for the Portuguese version of the official press release.
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