Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

Baldeu Chande nominated Park Warden (ad interim) of the Gorongosa National Park

Jun 11, 2007 - Gorongosa National Park

The Cabinet Chief of the Ministry of Tourism appointed Mr. Baldeu Chande interim Park Warden for Gorongosa National Park effective June 1, 2007.

Please join us in congratulating Baldeu Chande, well known and respected Mozambican Wildlife professional, in this important milestone of the life of the Gorongosa National Park.

Biographic Data:

Baldeu Chande

Director for Park Community Relations and interim Gorongosa National Park Warden

Baldeu Chande was born in Maputo and was raised in a small village, Guijá, in the Limpopo flood plain in Gaza Province in southern Mozambique. From a very early age he always loved to be closed to nature.  The opportunity to make a career out of this passion came in 1978, when he had a chance to do his training in wildlife conservation at the Gorongosa National Park Training Center. Since then he dedicated a great part of his life in conservation in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

In addition to serving as Gorongosa National Park Warden (leading the team that reopened the Park after the Peace Agreement that ended the Civil War) and as Marromeu Buffalo Reserve Warden, Baldeu Chande has also been Director and Instructor of the Wildlife Training Centre, Joint-Coordinator of a Buffalo Operation and also Head of Department of Wildlife Usage of a Mozambican state company.

He has extensive practical experience in matters like game counts, capture and taming activities, controlled culling and breeding of crocodiles, scout training for law enforcement and other activities, as well as organizing hunting and ecotourism safaris.

During the years when he collaborated with IUCN (the World Conservation Union), Mr. Chande worked very closely with rural communities, always in search of the best way to integrate these communities with Wildlife Conservation programs.

In recent years, Mr. Chande has made significant contributions to the conservation of Niassa Reserve and the Community Development Program there, developing and improving this program in spite of limited resources and enormous daily challenges.

Now he is back in Gorongosa working with a dedicated team of Mozambicans and international staff, employing adaptive management methodologies applied to biological conservation to restore and protect the Gorongosa Ecosystem.

One of his dreams is to attract many tourists to the Park because this magical place has to be seen to be believed and also because their presence and activity will create the motivation for the local communities to protect and value conservation activities.