The story of Gorongoza National Park in Mozambique is inspiring not only because of its beauty, its prolific animal population and the commitment of the government to maintain it, but also because of the financial backing from an American philanthropist who has devoted much of his fortune to rebuilding it. Greg Carr has spent around $100 million of his own money, by his own admission, to make sure that the Park thrives, despite initial neglect and subsequent natural disasters. It is a testament to what can be done when people who have made large amounts of money are committed to giving it back in positive ways.
Gorongosa National Park (GNP) in Mozambique is perhaps Africa’s greatest wildlife restoration story. In 2008, the Government of Mozambique and the Carr Foundation formed the “Gorongosa Project”, a 20-year Public-Private Partnership for the joint management of the Park and for human development in the communities near the Park. On June 7th 2018, the Government of Mozambique signed an extension of the management agreement of Gorongosa National Park for another 25 years. The stated approach is “By adopting a 21st Century conservation model of balancing the needs of wildlife and people, we are protecting and saving this beautiful wilderness, returning it to its rightful place as one of Africa’s greatest parks”.
Gorongosa National Park is at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley in the heart of central Mozambique, Southeast Africa. The more than 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) park comprises the valley floor and parts of surrounding plateaus. Rivers originating on nearby Mount Gorongosa at 1,863 m (6,112 ft))water the plain. Seasonal flooding and waterlogging of the valley, which is composed of a mosaic of soil types, creates a variety of distinct ecosystems. Grasslands are dotted with patches of acacia trees, savannah, dry forest on sands and seasonally rain-filled pans, and termite hill thickets. The plateaus contain miombo and montane forests and a spectacular rain forest at the base of a series of limestone gorges. This combination of unique features at one time supported some of the densest wildlife populations in all of Africa, including charismatic carnivores, herbivores, and over 500 bird species. But large mammal numbers were reduced by as much as 95% and ecosystems were stressed during the Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992). The Carr Foundation has teamed with the Government of Mozambique to protect and restore the ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park and to develop an ecotourism industry to benefit local communities.
The first official act to protect the Gorongosa region, Portuguese Mozambique, came in 1920 when the Mozambique Company ordered 1,000 square km set aside as a hunting reserve for company administrators and their guests. Chartered by the government of Portugal, the Mozambique Company controlled all of central Mozambique between 1891 and 1940. In 1935, Mr. Jose Henriques Coimbra was named warden and Jose Ferreira became the reserve’s first guide. That same year the Mozambique Company enlarged the reserve to 3,200 square km to protect habitat for nyala and black rhino, both highly prized hunting trophies. By 1940, the reserve had become so popular that a new headquarters and tourist camp was built on the floodplain near the Mussicadzi River. It was abandoned two years later due to heavy flooding in the rainy season. Lions then occupied the abandoned building and it became a popular tourist attraction for many years, known as Casa do Leãos (Lion House).
The late 1960s also saw the first comprehensive scientific studies of the park, led by Armando Rosinha, Director of Gorongosa, and Kenneth Tinley, an Australian ecologist. In the first-ever aerial survey, Tinley and his team counted about 200 lions, 2,200 elephants, 14,000 African buffalo, 5,500 wildebeest, 3,000 zebras, 3,500 waterbuck, 2,000 impala, 3,500 hippos, and herds of eland, sable antelope and hartebeest numbering more than 500. Tinley also discovered that many people and most of the wildlife living in and around the park depended on one river, the Vundudzi, which originated on the slopes of the nearby Mount Gorongosa. Because the mountain was outside the park’s boundaries, Tinley proposed expanding them to include it as a key element in a “Greater Gorongosa Ecosystem” of about 8,200 square kilometers. He and other scientists and conservationists were disappointed in 1966 when the government reduced the park’s area to 3,770 square kilometers.
In 1977, the People’s Republic of Mozambique, under the leadership of Samora Machel declared itself a Marxist-Leninist state. A rebel army known as “RENAMO” sprung up to oppose the new government. Feeling threatened by FRELIMO‘s new one-party government in Mozambique, neighbouring Rhodesia and South Africa began arming and supplying RENAMO. Once Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, direct support for RENAMO came from South Africa with the intention of destabilizing Machel’s government. Initially dismissed by Machel as a group of “armed bandits”, RENAMO’s war developed into a full-scale national threat by 1981. In December 1981 the Mozambican National Resistance (MNR, or RENAMO) fighters attacked the Chitengo campsite and kidnapped several staff members, including two foreign scientists. The Mozambican Civil War lasted from 1977 to 1992.
The violence increased in and around the park after that. In 1983 the park was shut down and abandoned. For the next nine years, Gorongosa was the scene of frequent battles between opposing forces. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting and aerial bombing destroyed buildings and roads. The park’s large mammals suffered huge losses. Both sides in the conflict slaughtered hundreds of elephants for their ivory, selling it to buy arms and supplies. Half of Gorongosa’s elephants evolved to be tuskless. Hungry soldiers shot many more thousands of zebras, wildebeest, African buffalo, and other ungulates. Lions survived the war, but several species of top carnivore—leopard, African wild dog, and spotted hyena—were driven locally extinct. A cease-fire agreement ended the civil war in 1992, but widespread hunting in the park continued for at least two more years. By that time many large mammal populations—including elephants, hippos, buffalo, zebras, and lions had been reduced by more than 95 percent. An aerial survey conducted in 1994 over 68 km2 of the park counted just 5 elephants, 6 waterbuck, 3 zebra, 12 reedbuck, and 1 oribi; buffalo and sable were not detected in aerial surveys until 2001, wildebeest until 2007, and eland until 2010.
In 2004 the Government of Mozambique and the US-based Carr Foundation agreed to work together to rebuild the park’s infrastructure, restore its wildlife populations and spur local economic development—opening an important new chapter in the park’s history. Since the beginning of the project, aerial surveys of wildlife have shown sharp increases in the number of large animals. In March 2018, a leopard was captured on a park camera after 14 years, and additional leopards were reintroduced starting in 2020. In July 2018 and November 2019, two packs of African wild dogs from South Africa were reintroduced. Spotted hyena reintroductions began in July 2022.
Gorongosa National Park is now home to a large diversity of animals and plants, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. This rich biodiversity creates a complex world where animals, plants and people interact. From the smallest insects to the largest mammals, each plays an important role in the Gorongosa ecosystem – the park includes termite mounds used as shade by Cape bushbuck and kudu. The continuing commitment of Greg Carr, combined with the successful efforts of the Mozambique government to educate the local people to regard the park as a positive economic addition to their lives, shows just what can be done. It is an inspiration to other areas of Africa where civil wars and population growth create conflicts between the people and the environment. Yes. There are many such potential projects in the world, but there are also many people with enough money to do what Greg Carr has achieved. All it takes is the will to do it.
