Travel Guide Parc National Des Quirimbas

The Quirimbas National Park was created in 2002 to protect the underwater and terrestrial fauna and flora, and includes twelve of the thirty-two islands of the eponymous archipelago, covering a total area of 7,500 km2, 20% of which is marine. It stretches from Metuge to Mucojo on the coast, and deep inland for almost 150 km. What a natural jewel! The French Development Agency (AFD), in partnership with the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Mozambican government, contributed to the park's development from 2004 to 2017, until the irruption of Daesh-affiliated Salafist jihadist terrorists in 2019. Reducing illegal exploitation of resources, increasing agricultural and fishing yields: Quirimbas National Park continued its consolidation project towards better resources. The Mozambican government was counting on high-end tourism; today, everything is closed on the archipelago due to the terrorist threat. To the north of the Quirimbas archipelago live the indomitable Makonde, independent warriors, hunters and sculptors, and to the south the Macua, farmers and traders. Both peoples are powerful ethnic blocs. The coast is more volatile, a mix of African, Arab and Portuguese influences. In fact, they don't even speak the same language: here they speak Kimwani, a cousin of Swahili, a mixture of Arabic and Bantu. Between land and sea, a dense mangrove separates them.