GONAREZHOU NATIONAL PARK
Situated in the northern region of Zimbabwe, on the southern banks of the Zambezi River, Mana Pools National Park will leave you breathless with its beauty. A paradise for walking and canoeing safaris, Mana Pools is a wildlife-rich, biodiverse wonderland that will delight at every turn. You can expect to spot hippopotamus, crocodile, elephants and a wonderful array of aquatic birds within this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and there’s a good chance of seeing lioness’ hunting around waterholes, where prey are seemingly easy pickings.
The landscapes are beautiful too, dotted with acacia trees, whose shade becomes vital to the parks’ more than 12,000-strong elephant population in the dry season, as well as a sprinkling of vibrant plant life. Far away from any human settlement, you’ll relish the feeling of remoteness here. Surrounded only by extreme wilderness, and if you visit in winter, you’ll find yourself exploring amongst the highest concentration of wildlife in Africa. An experience for which words can do no justice.
The Gonarezhou Trust is an innovative new model for protected area management drawn up between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA), and the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS). Built on the back of a strong relationship developed over 9 years of support by FZS for Gonarezhou, the Trust is directly responsible for management of the Park for a period of 20 years, and became fully operational on 1st March 2017.
The Park is governed by a Board of Trustees, made up in equal numbers by nominees from ZPWMA and FZS. The Trust is responsible for all aspects relating to the management of the Park. A key component of the partnership is that the Park should strive to become more financially self-sustainable during the tenure of the Trust to secure its long-term conservation viability – to that end all income pertaining to the Park will be retained by the Trust and reinvested in its management
