The UK government has signed a £2m grant agreement with Mozambique’s Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity, BIOFUND, to support a community-conservation programme running from 2026 to 2028. The agreement, signed in Maputo gives BIOFUND responsibility for coordinating the Community Conservation and Investment Programme, or CCIP. AIM reported that Britain had pledged to disburse the sum for biodiversity conservation, while BIOFUND sets the programme’s operating period at three years.
CCIP will work in four priority landscapes: Chipanje Chetu in Niassa, Mount Mabu in Zambézia, Zumbo in Tete and Mwai in Maputo Province. BIOFUND will work with the National Administration for Conservation Areas, known as ANAC, as well as national, local and community organisations. The geographic spread places the programme across northern, central and southern Mozambique rather than in a single protected area.
The agreement is a financing commitment and a programme plan, not a record of completed delivery. The published terms do not disclose how the £2m will be divided among the four landscapes or individual projects. AIM said the money would be directed primarily towards community-led conservation and sustainable financing mechanisms for biodiversity. That leaves the size and sequence of each local allocation unspecified at the outset.
Neither source gives a timetable for individual disbursements or identifies which partner organisation will carry out each planned activity.
BIOFUND plans to back sustainable agriculture, beekeeping and nature-tourism opportunities, selecting activities according to conditions in each landscape. It also intends to strengthen community organisations and improve financial management and accountability. The stated purpose is to increase local capacity to make decisions over conservation resources and related benefits. No projects, payments to communities or livelihood gains have yet been identified as delivered under the new agreement.
Reducing conflict between people and wildlife is a separate planned workstream. BIOFUND says CCIP will use monitoring, early-warning systems and measures to protect crops, with the mix adapted to local circumstances. The programme also plans training for conservation professionals and young people through the Mozambique Conservation Leadership Programme. The announcement does not specify the number of trainees, the technology to be deployed or targets for reducing crop losses or other conflict.
The new programme is intended to build on earlier work at the four sites. BIOFUND cites PROMOVE Biodiversidade at Mount Mabu, MozNorte in Chipanje Chetu, MozRural in Zumbo and the Swedish-funded Biodiversity Conservation Programme in Mwai. CCIP is expected to consolidate and extend that work while strengthening community institutions. The agreement itself does not quantify the prior investments, set comparable baseline measures or state how performance across the sites will be assessed.
For BIOFUND, the structure couples support for conservation management with activities designed to generate economic opportunities for people who depend on natural resources. The programme’s stated approach gives community bodies a role in managing resources and benefits, alongside ANAC and other partners. Whether that arrangement produces durable local income or improves biodiversity protection will depend on implementation over the funding period; neither outcome is yet evidenced by the agreement.
A possible later stage could include impact investment and a contribution to BIOFUND’s endowment fund. BIOFUND says the endowment-fund component is not in the initial agreement and would require specific approval from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. With no landscape-by-landscape budget published and the potential longer-term financing component still subject to approval, the division of the £2m and the scale of any follow-on capital remain unresolved.
