The Science and the Story Behind One of the Greatest Park Recovery Projects in the World
“In my judgement, the best naturalist in the world is Piotr Neskrecki.” – E.O. Wilson
Take a trip to Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique with Half-Earth Chair Piotr Naskrecki, Half-Earth Scholar Ricardo Guta, and researcher Norina Vicente, who will share the deep scientific work being performed there, and the extraordinary Gorongosa success story—from war ravaged landscape to thriving Park—that is inspiring and informing other conservation efforts in Africa and around the world, blazing the path to a Half-Earth future.
Ricardo, how did you learn of Gorongosa and how did you come to work and train in the park? What has that meant for you?
“I came in Gorongosa first of all in 2013 when Gorongosa National Park organized the first biodiversity surveys. I saw in the newspaper that the Park was organizing this big event that they invited international scientists and also national scientists and they were also opening opportunities to young people who were interested also in science.”
“As a research technician I help in the documentation of insects to understand what species that we have in the Park and what is their distribution and what is the role of this species in our ecosystems.”
Can you tell us about the science that’s at the core of your work in Gorongosa National Park?
“This is actually what we feel is our greatest contribution to Half-Earth and what the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation is doing, we are trying to help and create this very fine grain map of biodiversity…We are helping to understand how we can use this information to prioritize the designation of protected areas.”
Full video of the Virtual Happy Hour in Gorongosa National Park, May 6, 2020.
