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YEREVAN, Armenia<\/strong> \u2014 A Mozambican safari operator credited with helping restore wildlife populations in Mozambique\u2019s Zambezi Delta, has won the 2026 Markhor Award<\/a>, which recognizes contributions to conservation through sustainable wildlife management.<\/p>\n Zambeze Delta Safaris<\/a>, led by professional hunter Mark Haldane<\/a>, received the award on Oct. 22, 2026, at the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference<\/a>, 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\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no other way to describe it than it\u2019s a truly humbling feeling,\u201d Haldane told Mongabay in a WhatsApp interview. \u201cIn my wildest dreams I never imagined this or anything close to this.\u201d<\/p>\n The award comes as governments at COP17 review progress toward global biodiversity targets adopted in 2022. One of them, Target 9<\/a>, calls for sustainable wildlife management that also benefits communities. A new U.N. assessment<\/a> warns that the world remains off track to meet its biodiversity commitments by the 2030 deadline.<\/p>\n Astrid Schomaker<\/a>, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the recognition. \u201cHere is something we can celebrate,\u201d she said during a press conference announcing the winner.<\/p>\n Haldane began working in Coutada 11<\/a>, a hunting concession in central Mozambique, in 1994, after years of conflict had severely depleted wildlife populations. He later established Zambeze Delta Safaris with Mozambican businessperson Carlos Pacheco Faria<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the company\u2019s award nomination, since the safari outfit began working in the region, the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population has risen from about 1,100 to 35,000, while sable antelopes (Hippotragus niger<\/em>) have increased 100-fold from just 40 to 4,000. Twenty-four lions (Panthera leo<\/em>) were reintroduced in 2018, roughly 120 live there now. Mongabay has not independently verified all the figures, although Mozambique\u2019s Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity<\/a> has documented substantial wildlife recovery.<\/p>\n Trophy hunting remains controversial though amid questions about who benefits. A 2013 study<\/a> conducted in Mozambique\u2019s Niassa National Reserve, for example, found that a single leopard could generate approximately $24,000 in hunting revenue, however little of that money went back to local communities.<\/p>\n
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