Selous - Niassa Wildlife Corridor

The Selous - Niassa miombo woodland ecosystem as a whole is the largest trans-boundary natural dry forest ecosystem in Africa covering 150,000 km2 and extends across southern Tanzania into neighbouring Mozambique. The wide variety of wildlife habitats - forests, wooded grasslands, open savannahs, granite kopjes, seasonal and permanent wetlands and rivers - account for globally significant biodiversity. The core conservation areas for its continued existence are:

• the Selous Game Reserve which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage-Site
• the Niassa Game Reserve
• forest reserves

Together this area of land also constitutes the world's largest elephant range. The corridor is sparsely settled by small farmers who have lived side by side with the wildlife since time immemorial. The task ahead will be to find a balance between their development needs and the conservation of nature. The long term existence of the corridor will be in their hands.