Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

International Television Media Documents Tourism Potential at GNP

Nov 17, 2008 - Gorongosa National Park

A number of international television stations have recently visited Gorongosa National Park to produce television documentaries about the unique tourism opportunities available at the Park. Television crews have arrived from CBS/60 Minutes (USA), ARD (Germany), La 7 (Italy), Assignment Earth (USA), RTP-África (Portugal) and National Geographic Television. Some of these television programs have already been released.

The CBS/60 Minutes program can be seen online at the 60 Minutes website and other programs are still in production or development and will be released to the public within the next two years. Viewers will have the opportunity to watch these programs via satellite or local television channels.

RTP-África is developing a countrywide series called Parks and Nature Reserves of Mozambique. The programs will address the touristic, social and cultural aspects of the parks and reserves. However, the primary focus will be on environmental aspects, taking into consideration the relationship between human populations and nature in every geographical area depicted in the programs.  Ricardo Mota heads the RTP-África office in Maputo, which is responsible for creating and coordinating the project.


In total there will be twelve sixty-minute programs. Each program will introduce one of the six National Parks or six Nature Reserves of Mozambique. Mia Couto, the Mozambican biologist and writer, will narrate each program and give a portrait of the plant and animal life, tourist sights, and culture of the regions covered in the program. According to the informational document provided, Parks and Nature Reserves of Mozambique will show the work of Conservation Area Management Teams, various NGOs, investigators involved in research projects, and will even include some tourists who are beginning to discover the natural beauty of Mozambique.

Furthermore, the information provided states that the program aims to show Mozambique from the northernmost point to the southern tip, highlighting the country's potential for tourism, and, most importantly, presenting the natural grandeur of the country's six Parks and six Nature Reserves. As part of this project, the RTP-África crew traveled to GNP on September 16th for a week-long visit. The five-member crew consisted of Ricardo Mota (representative of RTP-África in Maputo and coordinator of the project), Jacinto Baibai (producer and camera operator), Paulo Ndjive (camera operator), Manuel Vistas (pilot) and Manuel Silva (pilot).


The crew and their equipment arrived at Gorongosa in two 4x4 vehicles and a ULM aircraft  (LandAfrica model). The airplane is used to capture aerial images and locate many large animal species. The aircraft affords the crew greater mobility within the conservation areas and allows them to reach difficult to access areas of rare beauty.

During their stay at GNP, the crew was housed in tents that they transported via trailer to the site. The crew also arrived equipped with a mobile kitchen and was thus logistically self-reliant. The RTP-África crew works in partnership with the Mozambican Tourist Ministry (through the National Office of Conservation Areas), Visabeira/Mozambique, WWF/Mozambique, and BRM/ULM LandAfrica.

In the program, Grand Gorongosa, the eye of the RTP-África cameras falls on many fascinating images that characterize the diverse and distinct ecosystems that make up the Park - acacia-covered planes, characteristic savannas, distinctive high planes with mountainous miombo forests, a wide variety of animals (both herbivores and carnivores), and many extraordinarily beautiful exotic bird species.

The film crew from the US-based National Geographic Television arrived on September 7th, 2008 and collected magnificent footage of the incomparable wildlife in the Park. The crew got superb shots of crocodiles, both at rest and as they hunted in Urema Lake. This lake is home to more reptiles belonging to the crocodylidae family than any other lake in the entire African continent.

Cameraman Bob Poole's lens also recorded the transport of six male elephants from Kruger National Park in South Africa, as well as the work of the Fire Management Team when it was called to action on September 27th, 2008 to contain a large-scale fire that started near the village of Vinho. During their nearly 20 days at the Park, the National Geographic Television crew collected a large amount of aerial and land-based footage. They later returned to GNP to film the arrival of five hippos transferred from Isimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa.

They will return once again to the Park to spend a few weeks during the months of December and January and film details of Park flora and fauna during this part of the annual seasonal cycle.


Carlitos Sunza
Communications Department/GNP