The success story of Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park

Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique has a long and turbulent history. At one point this lion would have been quite lonely, but now their numbers are rebounding. Today the park covers over 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles) plus an official buffer zone of an additional 3,300 square kilometers. It is a jewel in a country of 25 million people.

The park is ideally located at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley system which moves through Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania before ending in Mozambique. This unique geological feature creates a huge valley floor surrounded by plateaus. Overall around two-thirds of the park is made up of savannah and around 20 percent is grasslands, the rest is forest area.

Though part of the land that makes up the park had been set aside as a private company hunting reserve as early as 1920, it was not until 1960 that the ruling Portuguese government finally officially designated it a national park. After a long war of independence, Mozambique became its own country in June 1975, although Portuguese is still its official language.

In 1977, two years after independence a long and bitter civil war overtook the country. For the park it was especially devastating since the Mozambique Resistance Movement had its central command post directly within the park's boundaries. Both sides slaughtered animals for food or for ivory to trade. In 1983, the park was closed and abandoned altogether.

After the civil war ended in 1992 the park was a mere shadow of itself and remained closed. It is estimated that between 90-95 percent of the park's wildlife was lost. Surveys around that time counted just 15 buffalos, 5 zebras, 6 lions, 100 hippos and 300 elephants. The first animals to return were the most mobile - the birds; now the park is once again home to over 400 species.

Because of its particular topographical features the park has many different microclimates and an annual cycle of wet and dry seasons which only adds to its diversity. In an effort to revitalize the park, new staff was hired in 1994 with financial assistance from the African Development Bank and the European Union. Slowly the park was recovering, but sometimes nature needs a helping hand.

In 2004, the American-based Carr Foundation joined the government of Mozambique in a coordinated project to rebuild the park and reintroduce animals in an effort to restore its devastated wildlife. This pilot project was so successful that in 2008 the foundation and its founder, Gregory Carr, agreed to continue restoring and co-managing the park for another 20 years.

Gorongosa National Park has gone from being a private game reserve to a national park to a battlefield and back again to a national park. In the past few years many millions have been invested in the park and equally as important in the local communities. It is living proof that wildlife areas can be brought back to life from utter destruction - with patience and a lot of willpower and cash.