A Park Reborn: Bringing Wildlife Back | Nat Geo Live

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Bob Poole: Gorongosa National Park sits right in the middle of Mozambique. In 1964, a long war for independence broke out against Portugal. And that was followed by an even longer civil war that lasted until 1992. The armies fed off the wildlife in the park. And by the time that that war was over, there was almost no animals left in the park. It was left for dead.

But then, about ten years ago, an international team, led by this guy, Greg Carr, formed a partnership with the Mozambican government to start a 20-year project to bring that park back. When I arrived, in 2008, Greg flew me around and basically what I saw was one great, huge, beautiful African landscape. I came down with my Land Rover from Kenya. And vehicles were in short supply in the park. So, I ended up helping people out. I... I carried rangers around and scientists and... I spent more of my time going around with people in the park than I did actually filming. And I loved it. It was great. And I stayed.

And year after year kind of went by and during that time the wildlife started to rebound. And I'm not kidding you, it was amazing how quickly it came back. Not all species, but some species. It was like, it was staggering. Everything had a baby. I couldn't get enough of it. And so, the next thing I knew, I was officially joining a team of scientists and rangers on this great experiment to see if we could bring Gorongosa back to its former glory. And to save it from all of its new threats.

Poaching, illegal logging, illegal mining, even settlements inside the park and human-wildlife conflict outside the park are all big problems that the park faces. But in Gorongosa you've got Greg Carr and a dedicated team of scientists and rangers that are working hard to protect it. And I believe it will survive.

I learned what it takes to fight this fight for conservation. It's perseverance. When times got tough in Gorongosa, I watched Greg Carr and his team just put their head down and work even harder, believing that one day it would get better. And it did.