Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

 

Greg Carr

President, Carr Foundation

Idaho Falls, ID (USA)

I was born and raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, a small town in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, the youngest of seven children. I have always loved the outdoors, what it has to teach me and how it makes me feel. I now spend more than six months of every year in Mozambique. I work with a dedicated team of Mozambicans and international people using conservation biology to restore and protect the Gorongosa ecosystem. We hope to attract many tourists to the Park not only because this magical place will enrich the visitors but also because their presence and activity will create much-needed economic activity in central Mozambique. 

 

Baldeu Chande

Director of Community Relations and Park Warden

Guija, Gaza Province (Mozambique)

I was born in Maputo and raised in a small village, Guija, in Gaza Province, Mozambique. I have always loved to be close to nature, but the opportunity for that only came in 1978, when I had a chance to learn about wildlife conservation in the Gorongosa National Park Training Centre. After that I worked for many years in a variety of conservation positions in Mozambique and Zimbabwe before returning to Gorongosa. I lead a team that hopes 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 motivate communities in the Park’s Sustainable Development Zone (Buffer Zone) to protect and restore the local environment.

To read some song lyrics I wrote about Gorongosa, click here

 
Vasco Galante

Director of Communications

Lisbon (Portugal)

I always dreamed of coming to Africa to work with local communities to create a better future for African children. I feel that my academic background and previous managerial experiences in different countries are helping me to achieve the two main goals of the Gorongosa National Park Communications Department--create local and international awareness for the Park and transform Park visitors into Gorongosa advocates. I also have to admit that it is a privilege to work in such a beautiful place, surrounded by some of the most smiling people in the world.

Joao Viseu

Director of Business

Maputo (Mozambique)

I manage all of Gorongosa National Park's business activities, including fundraising, tourism development, construction, infrastructure maintenance, and general administration. During my 30-year career my passion for the environment and caring for others has landed me in a variety of management positions, including Founder and President of the Abacus School in Maputo; Founder and President of the Board of Directors of FEMA, Mozambique's Business Environmental Forum; and Vice President of the National Marketing Committee for Mozambique. I am working to help turn Gorongosa into the most beautiful and best run national park in Africa, showing the world that Mozambicans can, with the Carr Foundation as a teammate, achieve our dreams.

Suleimane Meguegy

Community Planning Coordinator

Maputo (Mozambique)

When I studied architecture and physical planning, one of my priorities in life was to contribute to the development of the country. Soon I had the chance to work in Sofala Province in community planning. Now I am interested in being part of this multi-disciplinary team with two great objectives of protecting/conserving the great biodiversity of the Park and working together with the communities, improving lives, and mitigating the possible conflicts between Man and Nature. My biggest challenges in this project are, first, to help the communities in planning their physical space in accordance with their needs in a sustainable way; second, to get the communities to contribute toward the long life of the biodiversity of Gorongosa National Park; third, to develop the capacity to analyze different scenarios for life in the Sustainable Development Zone (Buffer Zone) of the Park.

Rich Beilfuss

Director of Scientific Services

Chicago, IL (USA)

I live at Chitengo with my wife Katie (Communications Specialist for GNP) and our 5-year-old son, Ian. I joined the team two years ago to create a new international research center at Gorongosa National Park. I am especially excited that we are creating a unique training ground for Mozambican students of all ages in the ecological and social sciences. I did my Ph.D research in Africa and have worked here and in Asia for more than 20 years on a variety of conservation and sustainable development projects. This by far the most exciting initiative I have participated in.

 

Wildlife Sanctuary Team

Macane Jornal, Bento Talaca, Salazar Focumbe, João Bazi, José Lino Da Paz, Zembe Braunde, Dreque Blaque, Carlitos Eliasse, and Sebastão Tomé, the hard-working team that keeps our Wildlife Sanctuary – the backbone of Gorongosa National Park’s animal reintroduction program – running.  These ten men work under the skilled direction of Sanctuary Manager Carlos Tavares in the Park’s Conservation Services Department.

The men come from nearby communities, including Gorongosa Town, Bela Vista and Vinho, to work at the Park.  For most of these men, this job is their first.  Prior to coming to work for the Park, they worked their family farms, growing cotton to sell as well as vegetables and maize to feed their families.  Now they are able to take the income they earn in their jobs at the Park in order to improve and grow these farms, improving the promise of a better future for their families. 

The team clears roads, builds firebreaks, fights wildfires, and maintains the “boma” (the release pen for re-introduced animals). The team has been a key part in building facilities to house and support Sanctuary staff, including the Park’s veterinary laboratory.  They also patrol the Sanctuary’s electrified boundary fence daily to inspect for damage, a function that also serves as a significant deterrent for illegal hunters who seek game inside the Sanctuary.

As they talk about their experience working for the Park, these men all express pride in their work and satisfaction about their contributions to the Park’s restoration.  In particular, they stress their interest in adding to and improving their skills (most have at best a primary school education) and in learning more about conservation, about which they just used to hear stories.  Now, they are participating in these stories, learning how to understand the wildlife living within the Sanctuary – when they are well, when they are ill, what they need – and are a key part in making sure the animal reintroductions go smoothly. 

The men are also helping spread the message of conservation in their communities, explaining to their families and friends in their home towns about what they do and why it is important, and about why it is important to not harm nature.

“It is interesting for humanity,” says Sebastão Tomé, the team’s leader. “We like it a lot.”

 

 

 

 

 

Quisito Servente

Receptionist

Beira (Mozambique)

My name is Quisito Colher Servente and I work at the reception desk at Gorongosa National Park.  I am from the city of Beira in Sofala Province in central Mozambique.  I am an admirer of tourism; in 2001 I spoke with an English tourist crossing the Zambezi River who told me about the discoveries, advantages, and opportunities that tourism offers to a determined country and inspired me to pursue a career in tourism.  I have been lucky to participate in various training courses to gain experience in reception and restaurant hospitality and in hospitality management in general.

I started my work at Gorongosa National Park as a waiter in the restaurant, and worked in that capacity for 3 months.  I was promoted to a position in tourism reception in mid-2007.  In this role, I work in the “front office” reception at Chitengo for the department that manages tourism at the Park.  I am responsible for managing the daily arrival and departure of tourists at the Park, welcoming all of our visitors, and managing bookings.  At the reception desk, we are the logical contact point for distributing information to visitors and other people within the Park, so we do our best to keep everyone informed and up to date. 

I look forward to welcoming you to Gorongosa National Park!

 

Paulino António

Apprentice Plumber

Vinho (Mozambique)

Paulino António had six children to feed and put through school.  He had no job.  He worked with his wife to grow his family’s food in a small garden plot along the margins of the Pungue River across from Gorongosa National Park‘s Chitengo Camp.  He didn’t have the money to buy the uniforms and supplies his children needed in order to attend school, so they stayed home.  But he knew that his children had no hope for a future without an education.  So, in desperation, he sought out another solution to his predicament.

He learned he could make good money selling game meat hunted illegally from Gorongosa National Park.  While he knew this was illegal, he didn’t know how else to earn the money his family needed.  Like many in the local communities surrounding the Park, he lacked practical skills necessary to obtain a job, and the area supported few employers.  So he started poaching, setting traps and snares furtively in the Park to kill bushbuck, waterbuck, and other animals for sale.  He had to work carefully to avoid the scouts who routinely patrolled the Park in search of illegal hunters.  But one day early in 2007, his luck ran out:  he was apprehended by Park scouts and taken into custody for his illegal hunting.

His capture marked a positive turning point in Paulino’s life.  Park managers, recognizing that many people were driven to illegal hunting in order to combat the poverty in their life, offered Paulino a job instead of shipping him off to prison.  Paulino was hired by the Park to work as an apprentice plumber in the Park’s Infrastructure Department.  He is now being taught work skills that will enable him to find and keep employment in order to support his family.  He is earning money to send his children to school.  And he is a good worker.  “Paulino is working hard to learn his new trade.  We expect that one day he will be promoted from apprentice to full plumber once he has the necessary experience and skills.  We are happy to have him on our team.  And we are even happier to have permanently removed one poacher from the Park to show him a better way of life,” says Luis Felipe LeBoeuf, Infrastructure Department Manager.

Paulino is happy with his new life.  He makes the trip daily across the Pungue River to Chitengo Camp to work, and returns home in the evening to his family. He is proud to be learning new skills and to be setting a good example for his children.  And he is proud that all of his children will now be able to attend school and have a chance at a better life.