Mozambique safari operator wins conservation award at COP17

Mozambican safari operator Zambeze Delta Safaris wins conservation award at COP17

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A Mozambican safari operator has won the 2026 Markhor Award for its contributions to conservation through sustainable wildlife management. Zambeze Delta Safaris, led by professional hunter Mark Haldane, received the award on Oct. 22, 2026, at the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP17, in Yerevan, Armenia. The company combines regulated trophy hunting with wildlife restoration, anti-poaching efforts and community development in an area of Mozambique that was devastated by the country’s civil war.

The award comes as governments at COP17 review progress toward global biodiversity targets adopted in 2022. One of them, Target 9, calls for sustainable wildlife management that also benefits communities. A new U.N. assessment warns that the world remains off track to meet its biodiversity commitments by the 2030 deadline. Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the recognition.

According to the company’s award nomination, since Zambeze Delta Safaris began working in the region, the African buffalo population has risen from about 1,100 to 35,000, while sable antelopes have increased 100-fold from just 40 to 4,000. Twenty-four lions were reintroduced in 2018, roughly 120 live there now. Mongabay has not independently verified all the figures, although Mozambique’s Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity has documented substantial wildlife recovery.

Trophy hunting remains controversial amid questions about who benefits. A 2013 study conducted in Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve found that a single leopard could generate approximately $24,000 in hunting revenue, however little of that money went back to local communities. However, a 2026 review of 89 studies across 13 sub-Saharan African countries found that nearly two-thirds of documented trophy-hunting outcomes were positive, for either wildlife or local people.