The agreement formalising this grant was signed on Monday in Maputo by the governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove, and AFD director, Bruno Leclerc.
Of the grant, 11 million euros will go towards the PNL, and the remaining six million to the state budget.
Leclerc said that the funding for the Park envisaged rehabilitating roads, preserving biodiversity, promoting tourism, and strengthening the capacity of the park administration so as to guarantee the long term sustainability of the PNL.
French ambassador Thierry Viteau, who witnessed the signing, said that, in supporting the PNL, France is acting in partnership with the German Development Bank, KFW, the World Bank, and the South African Peace Parks Foundation The PNL is part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also includes the South African Kruger National Park, and the Gonorhezou park in Zimbabwe. Viteau believed the park would contribute towards regional integration, and strengthen cooperation between the three countries involved.
This is the second intervention by the AFD in conservation areas. The first was a grant of 4.2 million euros to finance the Quirimbas National Park, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, for the 2005-2009 period.
The remaining six million euros, said Viteau, is the continuation of French support for the Mozambican state budget in the 2007-2009 period, in order to attain the objectives set in the government's Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty. France is one of 18 donors who provide direct budget support.
SOURCE: AIM
