Wilderness Safaris bags tourism concession for Nyika National Park
15. Jul, 2009
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Wilderness Safaris is excited to announce that it has been awarded the tourism concession for Nyika National Park in northern Malawi by the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife. This includes the well known Chelinda Lodge.
This spectacularly scenic 300 000 hectare park is the only big game Afro-montane area in southern and south central Africa and as well as being an exciting addition to the Wilderness Safaris ecotourism circuits in Malawi and neighbouring Zambia, is a fantastic boon to the biodiversity footprint of the company.
To date Wilderness Safaris has been represented in seven of southern Africa’s eleven biomes (a major regional biotic community characterized by specific climate, vegetation and fauna). The Nyika tender means that the company is now present in eight of these biomes and is able to add the financial sustainability of its unique ecotourism model to the protection of a rare and threatened ecosystem.
The Nyika Plateau (in particular the high altitude grassland, dambos and evergreen forests) is of undoubted biological importance. It contains one of Africa’s richest orchid communities totaling some 214 species of terrestrial and epiphytic orchids: four species and two subspecies occur nowhere else on earth. A further 13 plant species and 7 subspecies are also endemic to the park. No fewer than four bird subspecies are endemic while the area harbours several species of conservation concern such as Denham’s Bustard and Blue Swallow. The Plateau also holds a unique assemblage of large mammal fauna, such as leopard, spotted hyaena, roan, eland and even elephant, and nearly 100 species have been recorded here. No other sizeable populations of large mammals are found elsewhere in this biome, making Nyika NP unique in both its ecosystem as well as its ecotourism opportunities. There is even an endemic mammal subspecies (chequered elephant shrew) confined to the plateau.
It is clear that the biodiversity and conservation value of the Nyika National Park is high and that it has national, continental and global significance as a conservation area. The uniqueness of the area, in both its physical appearance and also in its biodiversity and atmosphere, also makes it an exciting ecotourism proposition and Wilderness Safaris is extremely excited about the sustainability it can bring to the conservation of the area. We look forward to releasing further details of our ecotourism product in the area in the near future.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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