Limpopo National Park recently completed refresher training for 24 field rangers.
This follows on the guard training conducted earlier in the year. The training was undertaken at the park’s Mapai field ranger base. It followed a course design and instruction from the Southern African Wildlife College, with instructional support from in-house senior field ranger personnel, regional police and medical technicians. This enabled the combination of the best regional field ranger training practices with a local context and content.
The refresher training included instruction in new anti-poaching techniques and tactics, the application of Mozambique’s new Conservation Law and the use of GPS and digital radios.
At the end of the training course the park warden, Mr Antonio Abacar, informed the rangers that the construction of the new field ranger base at Massingir Gate will soon get under way and that good progress had been made with the installation of a digital radio communication system that will enhance communications in the park and during joint operations along the border with Kruger National Park.
Thanks to Fondation Hoffmann, additional equipment will soon be delivered to the park. This will include spotlights for night operations, handcuffs, backpacks and water bottles for patrol operations, cooking equipment for livelihood improvement and GPS units and mobile phones for data capturing purposes. The mobile phones have a camera, basic GPS and voice recorder and will have cyber-tracker software installed. A solar charger will allow for longer patrol operations. Data will be captured into the Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tool SMART, which will improve data recording and analysis, including identification of patrol areas, wildlife and poaching activity areas.