A Park For The People | 6 | What Are You Doing Here ? podcast

4y ago 55:11

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Pro-women, pro-girl and pro-family approach to integrated conservation and development make this national park truly “A Park for the People”.

The Gorongosa Project sees people and conservation as two sides of the same coin. Their mission is to advance an integrated multi-partner approach to conservation and to people - centered development.

We will be speaking to Dominique Goncalves, she is a Mozambican ecologist focused on elephant conservation in Gorongosa National Park. Her interest in biodiversity protection and human population increase inspired her to earn her MSC in Conservation Biology at Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at University of Kent. Gonçalves currently serves as Manager of the Elephant Ecology Project where she investigates elephant movement and range expansion in relation to habitat use and Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC). Working with law enforcement and sustainable development colleagues, she hopes to build coexistence between communities and wildlife throughout the buffer-zone surrounding the park. In addition to this, Gonçalves works closely with park Girls’ Club programs; promoting education and health to prevent early marriage.

The Gorongosa Project protects the Park’s biodiversity and ecosystem services and unlocks its economic potential for the community inhabitants of the Gorongosa Buffer Zone, Sofala Province, Mozambique and further afield. At a time of increasing fragmentation of wild landscapes across Africa, we have an historic opportunity to create an immense, unfenced, connected mosaic of Protected Areas in central Mozambique, comparable in size to the Serengeti Ecosystem. This landscape is hailed by E.O. Wilson as one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. This healthy landscape will serve as an engine of sustainable economic growth to the people who live around the Park. 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.

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