Wildlife is abundant in Gorongosa National Park. Located in central Mozambique in southeast Africa, Gorongosa is home to tens of thousands of animals, including lions, leopards, elephants, and zebras.
It’s a remarkable sight, given the park’s history — and the transformation isn’t just for its animal residents.
Decades ago, Gorongosa became a world famous park, famous for its abundant wildlife. But from the 1960s to the 1990s, Mozambique was rocked by a 28-year war, first when the country gained independence from Portugal, and then when civil war broke out between the two main political movements. During the civil war, Gorongosa was often a battlefield; 95 percent of the wildlife is either poached by soldiers and local villagers desperate for food, or slaughtered for profit.
60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley first visited the national park in 2008 to follow American businessman Greg Carr, who has spent the last four years restoring Gorongosa to its former glory. At that time, Carr began to introduce animals to the landscape. The endeavor was not without its challenges. Zebras, for example, had to be brought from Zimbabwe, but the country’s political and economic problems at the time made it impossible to import anything.
Carr’s grand vision for the park extends beyond the animals, however. This also applies to those who live around the park, who live on no more than a dollar a day.
“This idea, take the beauty of the park and use it to do human development,” Carr told Pelley in 2008. “Attract tourists who will spend money to create jobs and lift everyone out of poverty. For entrepreneurs, This is an interesting opportunity, you you know, one plus one equals ten.”
Pelley and 60 Minutes return to Gorongosa in 2022 to see how the Carr equation fares. The transformation was immediately apparent.
“We used to drive on the trails here in 2008, and we would drive for hours and not see an animal, not one,” Pelley told 60 Minutes Overtime. “Today you can’t drive 100 yards without running into all kinds of spectacular African fauna and flora.”
Carr’s bet on human capital has also paid off. Gorongosa currently employs 1,600 workers who are mostly Mozambicans. Carr’s organization works in all 89 primary schools surrounding the national park and trains hundreds of school teachers. Carr has also started 92 after-school clubs that serve about 3,000 girls.
Part of the investment in the Gorongosa people included sending young people to the United States for college, including one young woman named Gabriela Curtiz. Fluent in several languages, Curtiz grew up in the Gorongosa area and currently attends Boise State University in Idaho, where he earned a degree in management. His goal is to return and help manage Gorongosa.
Curtiz told Pelley that Carr’s move to Gorongosa has helped them by giving them opportunities, especially women.
“Here specifically in Mount Gorongosa, we have 800 people working in coffee harvesting and planting native species. And half of them are women,” said Curtiz. “It’s the one that gives prosperity. The one that gives women a voice to express their opinions.”
In the years to come, Carr will strive to keep the park self-sustaining. Ecotourism is a major initiative, and Carr has begun building high-rise lodges to boost the park’s revenue.
Another income-generating idea is the sale of carbon credits, which act like permits for a company’s carbon emissions. When a company, usually from a developed country, buys a carbon credit, that company can produce one ton of carbon emissions. For Gorongosa, the company’s way of offsetting its carbon use is to buy trees.
Mount Gorongosa, which is in another park, has had many trees cut down during the years of civil war. Today Carr’s non-profit foundation provides coffee trees to local farmers to plant as part of the reforestation of Mount Gorongosa, and the foundation is negotiating the sale of carbon credits for these plants.
Revenue from carbon credits, Carr said, would further benefit areas already affected by climate change.
“I think we all know that there is too much carbon dioxide going up into the air, and it’s warming the planet. And it will hammer Africa,” said Carr. “Africa cannot suffer any more droughts or for (matter of fact), more cyclones.”
All the money brought in from tourism and carbon credits goes back into the community, Carr said.
As he looks to the future, Carr’s vision for Gorongosa remains the same as when he arrived in 2004: to help the people of Gorongosa – both four-legged and two-legged.
“I like elephants,” Carr told Pelley. “But I love people.”
The video above was originally published on December 4, 2022 and was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer, Will Croxton, and Henry Schuster. It was edited by Will Croxton.
