Liwonde national park

Liwonde national park

Liwonde national park   is found in southern Malawi along the border with Mozambique. The park was opened in the year 1973 , the park covers an area of  548 squire kilometre, and is largely covering the district of Machinga and Mangochi.  The park is largely covered by Savannah and woodland vegetation, part of  Shire river  and lake Malombe crosses the national park.  In the year 1977 the national park was expanded by adding part of the Mangochi forest. The parks management was given to anon profit organization   named African park in the 2015 along with Mangochi forest reserve therefore increasing the size of the protected area twice.

Much as liwonde national park was being encroached on by the local population   in terms of poaching and  cutting down the trees  for  making of charcoal and other activities the introduction of African parks as the body that manages park put a stop to such illegal activities by helping the communities find alternative activities other than depending on the forests  and the poaching.

The innitiateive of African national park led to the thriving of  Liwonde national park leading to increased large mammals at the park amounting to 12000 in number along with 380 bird species recorded in the park. Some of the most notable wildlife species in the park include: African buffaloes, common elands, warthogs, elephants, baboons, bush bucks, water bucks, rhinos, hippos, cheetahs among others, crocodiles, cheetahs among others.