EXPLORE WILD HOPE

Researchers are trumpeting a welcome piece of news for African elephants. In the last 25 years, populations in southern Africa have reversed their declines, and even started to grow, according to a new study in Science Advances.

A group of women in Mozambique risked their lives to save thousands of coffee plants they knew would bring a better life for their families—and help restore a watershed that people and wildlife depend on.

A man in Mozambique helps local farmers grow native trees to provide shade to the coffee crops they depend on—and restore a rainforest for people and wildlife alike.

Marcos Bera Chova is the manager of the reforestation and honey programs on Mount Gorongosa. He joined Gorongosa National Park in 2012 as a reforestation specialist and forest technician.

Gorongosa National Park and its surrounding buffer zone span 10,000 square kilometers in central Mozambique. After a quarter century of civil war and political turmoil following Mozambique’s fight for independence in 1975, more than 95% of the large mammals were wiped out within the park. The entire park ecosystem was on the precipice of collapse. […]

To save Gorongosa National Park's wilderness, these teams are trying something new: encouraging people to plant a cash crop—shade-grown coffee—that actually depends on restoring the forest to thrive.

At Gorongosa National Park, scientists are determined to understand how an ecosystem recovers from the decimation of war.

The communities around Gorongosa National Park have been investing for decades in eco-friendly agriculture (like sustainable, shade-grown coffee), as well as research-driven wildlife management and the building of an economic framework that supports both the Park's natural ecosystem and its surrounding communities.