Tourism provides important employment opportunities and helps to preserve Malawi's natural resources.
Over the years since our first visit in 2012, Malawi's wildlife parks have been transformed. In partnership with African Parks, they have worked closely with the local community to address poaching and now support a large variety of animals, birds and creatures in general.
Our stay at Mvuu safari lodge and more recently, Kuti Wildlife Reserve, is a highpoint of the trip and provides an extraordinary opportunity to learn about animal conservation.
Wild on safari
We take you for a short drive through Kuti to see the only (then) giraffe in Malawi and over to Mvuu to get really wild!
Safari in pictures
Kuti Wildlife Reserve
Kuti is an understated wildlife park that has a wide range of animals like zebra, sable and kudu but no predators and elephants. As a result, it is the perfect place to pitch camp and learn about the reserve's anti-poaching programme. We have only been there once, in 2019, but we are looking forward to this being the start of a long and productive partnership.
Malawi's wildlife
Since the coalition between African Parks and the Malawi government’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, prospects for Malawi’s wildlife have transformed.
When they first came to Liwonde in 2015 - after their success with Majete from 2003 - much of the wildlife had been wiped out by poachers. There were more snare wires than animals in Liwonde. But by working hand-in-hand with the local community, creating new employment opportunities and providing an education on overfishing and poaching, Malawi's wildlife has become a real success story.
500 excess elephants were relocated from the southern parks of Liwonde and Majete to the under-populated Nkhotakota park. Seven cheetahs introduced to Liwonde in 2018 are now 18 and black rhino have been reintroduced on the back of Majete's successful anti-poaching track-record.
There is no doubt that large-scale international trafficking of bushmeat, carnivore pelts, tortoises, pangolins, orchids, ivory and rhino horn continues to be a very real threat but the government has responded with a raft of measures to combat serious organised crime, including launching the country's first wildlife crime investigation unit, introducing critical amendments to the wildlife legislation and pioneering justice programmes.
Malawi is now home to the Big Five as well as a huge variety of other species: from extremely rare birds like the African Pitta to hippos and crocs, giraffes, zebras, a whole host of unusual antelope, porcupines, hyenas, jackals, civets, otters and even some serval and pangolin too.