Maputo National Park

Maputo National Park is a national park in Mozambique, located on Maputo Bay, approximately 100 kilometers southeast of the city of Maputo. With an area of 1,718 km² (663 square miles), it is part of Matutuíne District of the Maputo Province, and also of the Inhaca Island of the city of Maputo.^[1]

Maputo National Park
Location	Mozambique
Created	2021

History

The park was created on 7 December 2021, by the merger of two pre-existing conservation areas: the Maputo Special Reserve (1,040 km² (400 square miles)) and the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (678 km² (262 square miles)).^[1] The Maputo Special Reserve (before 1969 known as Maputo Elephant Reserve) was originally proclaimed in 1932 as the Maputo Elephant Reserve to protect a small population of coastal elephants resident in the area.^[2] The park was devastated by the Mozambican Civil War, which decimated its animal population. In 2006, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Africa-based conservation group Peace Parks Foundation to rehabilitate the park, resulting in the reintroduction of multiple species beginning in 2010.^[3]

The Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve was established in 2009 to protect the coastal ecosystem of the southernmost region of Mozambique.^[4]

Ecology

The park combines lakes, wetlands, swamp forests, grasslands and mangrove forests with a coastline that lies within the Maputaland Centre of Endemism.^[5]

Fauna

The park contains 5,000 individual animals from 16 mammal species, including kudu, impala, eland, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest and zebra. In 2023 and 2024, spotted hyenas were introduced to the park as part of a translocation program from Sabie Game Park in South Africa. The park's resident population of 400 African elephants has also been augmented by the transmigration of herds from Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa since 2014, following the reopening of the Mozambique–South Africa border.^[3] In its coastal area a variety of marine species, such as dolphins, whales, sharks (including the whale shark), rays, coral fish and sea turtles, can be found.^[4]

Management

The park is an element of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area, which includes national parks from South Africa, Mozambique and Eswatini.^[1]

In 2018 the transfrontier conservation group Peace Parks Foundation signed a partnership agreement with the Mozambique government to support the management and development of the Maputo Special Reserve and adjacent Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. This comprised US$16 million donated by a number of donors, including the Reinet Foundation, Wyss Foundation and World Bank funded MozBio programme.^[6]

Eco-tourism infrastructure in the reserve consists of the Anvil Bay resort, which opened in 2015.^[7]

In 2025, the site was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of an expansion from the ISimangaliso Wetland Park in neighbouring South Africa.^[3]