The Lukwika-Lumesule Game Reserve Southern Tanzania

The Lukwika-Lumesule game reserve is situated in southern Tanzania on the border with Mozambique. Across the Ruvuma River, which forms the boundary between the two countries, is the Niassa National Park, famous for it's big tuskers.

The Lukwika-Lumesule game reserve was gazetted as such in 1995. The area was previously traditional tribal land and the wildlife had been all but wiped out. To establish the reserve the people had to be moved out and compensated for their cashew trees. In 2000 Miombo Safaris obtained the hunting rights to the reserve and immediately embarked on a "campfire - style" management program.

The local community was involved in rehabilitating the reserve. A percentage of the money raised through hunting safaris was channeled back to the community in the form of schools, clinics etc. This had a positive effect on the attitude of local people towards wildlife. Protecting the wildlife would benefit the community directly.

Because wildlife numbers in the area had been so seriously depleted the only huntable species left was the elephant. Fortunately, with the close proximity of the Niassa reserve, big-tusked elephants often wander into the reserve. Over the years some fantastic elephant trophies came out of the reserve. All the while other game species populations were increasing dramatically. Without the ability to hunt elephant the future of the Lukwika--Lumesule game reserve would have been doomed.

Today the wildlife populations are stable and large enough to sustain an annual hunting quota. Species such as sable, waterbuck, buffalo, red duiker, bushbuck, leopard, lion, warthog and kudu can be taken. With increased hunting revenue, more money is being spent on infrastructure development within the park.

The Lukwika-Lumesule game reserve is in the middle of nowhere. It is off the beaten track, far from the tourists' camera shutters. It is, therefore, not glorified as the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater is. It is however a vital link in the efforts to create a wildlife corridor between the Niassa Park in Mozambique and the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.

Without hunting and the foresight of the directors of Miombo Safaris, the establishment of this self-sustaining game reserve would never have been realized.