
A lion prowls through a flock of pelicans. Photo Credit: Charlie Hamilton James
Animals MozambiqueA Restoration Success That’s Among the World’s Greatest!
A successful restoration project in central Mozambique led to considerable growth in wildlife populations like great white pelicans and offered secured jobs for local communities.
The creation of the Gorongosa National Park, also called “the Serengeti of the South,” is one of the world’s great wildland restoration stories. Twenty years after its creation, the Park is home to more animals of all kinds than before the war. So much so that Gorongosa has now started to export wildlife to help repopulate other parks.
The Gorongosa Restoration Project, jointly managed by the U.S.-based Carr Foundation and the Mozambican government, took off in 2004 after three decades of civil uproar – independence from colonial master Portugal in the mid-70s followed by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1992 – and animal slaughter. The Cape buffalo population went from 13,000 to 15, and the wildebeest fell from 6,400 to one. Today, the Park is home to storks, great white pelicans, leopards, hyenas, hippos, wild dogs, elephants, buffalo, and wildebeest. Human and economic development activities have been protected in the process, and the Park employs local people as rangers, scouts, and guides.