Project Kasungu, Malawi

Species Monitoring and Capacity Building in Kasungu National Park, Malawi

Background

Kasungu National Park, located in the central-western region of Malawi along the border with Zambia, is the second-largest national park in the country. It is one of the five national parks that form part of the renowned Luangwa Valley ecosystem and the only one located within Malawi, lying within the Malawi-Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area. Dominated by Miombo woodland, (high woodland or closed savanna dominated by trees of the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia) the park is traversed by the Dwangwa River and its tributaries, mostly seasonal watercourses. Scattered inselbergs, especially in the northern sector, create nutrient-rich islands in the soil that contrast with the typically flat Miombo landscape.

The area received its first official protection in 1922, when it was designated as the Fort Alston Forest Reserve with the aim of controlling populations of tsetse flies, which had increased due to intensive cattle presence and were causing widespread sleeping sickness. However, wildlife remained abundant, and in 1930 its status was changed to Game Reserve to protect large mammals. Finally, in 1970, it was declared a National Park and renamed Kasungu National Park.

At that time, Kasungu supported thriving wildlife populations and was the last refuge for cheetahs in Malawi. It also harbored over 1,000 elephants, as well as lions, leopards, African wild dogs, and rhinos, serving even as a source population for restocking other protected areas across the country. Sadly, the following decades saw the devastating rise of indiscriminate poaching, peaking between the 1990s and early 2010s, leading to a dramatic collapse of wildlife numbers and, in some cases, the translocation of animals to other parks for their survival.

Recent anti-poaching efforts have yielded positive results, and since the late 2010s, wildlife populations have slowly started to recover. Nevertheless, the focus on law enforcement has shaped the way the park is managed and financed. The limited resources and capacity available to Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) have been devoted primarily to anti-poaching activities, leaving biodiversity monitoring and ecological management largely neglected. Currently, the park lacks a conservation programme that provides up-to-date data on which species are present, their numbers, and how their populations are changing over time.

Asociación Biomas’ Involvement

The Asicación Biomas has entered into an agreement with the Government of Malawi—specifically with the DNPW—to implement a multidisciplinary project in Kasungu National Park addressing both conservation and capacity-building needs.

Drawing on the organization’s extensive experience in training and the involvement of several of our field conservationists, the project aims to:

Train park staff—both technical personnel and rangers—in sampling techniques, survey design, data collection, and data processing, enabling them to produce management-oriented reports that support informed decision-making.

Conduct an inventory and monitoring of the park’s mammal species. Using methods such as camera trapping and acoustic monitoring, the project will document medium and large mammal species, establishing a foundation for a long-term monitoring plan. The focus is on empowering park staff to carry out these activities independently in the future. Special attention will be given to key species for ecosystem balance, such as lions and African wild dogs, for which no official records have been obtained since the late 2010s.

Promote Kasungu National Park both as a conservation priority and as an ecotourism destination that supports local community development. This will be achieved through the creation of educational and outreach materials and by providing guidance in the design and implementation of conservation strategies. The project also aims to position Kasungu as a hub for research projects, leveraging Biomas’ network of contacts with universities and other institutions.

Additionally, the park will serve as a base for training courses for future conservationists, establishing Kasungu as a regional reference for conservation, development, and environmental education in this part of Africa.

Current Status of the Project

Our instructors and collaborators, Andoni Dios and Paula Anza, are the primary on-the-ground coordinators responsible for launching this much-needed project. Both have prior experience in carnivore research and human-wildlife conflict in Malawi, and they are leading the project’s implementation from Malawi through fundraising efforts, signing agreements with local entities, and other key activities.

In October, the official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Malawi’s DNPW, giving the green light to carry out all planned activities in the park.

While the first steps have already been taken, much remains to be done. We are thrilled to announce that we have just been generously granted by The Beit Trust Africa to carry out essential works at Lifupa Camp, which will begin in the coming months. The short-term objective is to ensure that the camp meets the minimum conditions to serve as a base for the project, as well as for future research and ecotourism initiatives. Although basic infrastructure exists, the camp is significantly deteriorated and previously lacked electricity and a reliable water source. Thanks to the dedicated work of Biomas, we were able to secure this grant, which now allows our team to move forward with the crucial improvements needed to make Lifupa Camp fully operational.

In parallel, the team is actively seeking additional funding sources to acquire the equipment needed to begin species inventory and capacity-building activities, including camera traps, passive acoustic detectors, call-in devices, and fuel for work within the park.

Once the camp is fully operational, it is intended to serve as a hub for Biomas’ future training courses on mammal survey methods. It will also offer the possibility to host expert expeditions for the study or inventory of other faunal groups such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, and for botanical research expeditions.