Mozambique has recorded a 70% drop in elephant poaching, according Land and Environment Minister, Ivete Maibasse.

She attributed the drop to the commitment of security forces protecting conservation areas.

“Until 2014, we would register the loss of 1,200 elephants per year,” she said, adding that the numbers reduced to 360 elephants per year between 2015 and 2019.

The minister said that the Niassa Reserve, largest protected area in the country, had not lost an elephant to poaching in the last two years.