Gorongosa National Park

Gorongosa National Park is at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley in the heart of central Mozambique. The 3,770 square kilometer park includes the valley floor and parts of surrounding plateaus. Rivers originating on nearby 1863-meter Mount Gorongosa water the plain.

Seasonal flooding and waterlogging of the valley, which is composed of a mosaic of different soil types, creates a variety of distinct ecosystems. Grasslands are dotted with patches of acacia trees, savannah, dry forest on sands and seasonally rain-filled pans and termite hill thickets. The plateaus contain miombo and montane forests and a spectacular rain forest at the base of a series of limestone gorges.

This combination of unique features at one time supported some of the densest wildlife populations in all of Africa, including charismatic carnivores, herbivores and over 500 bird species. But large mammal numbers were reduced by as much as 95% and ecosystems stressed during Mozambique's thirty-year civil conflict at the end of the 20th Century.

The Carr Foundation, a U.S. not-for-profit organization, has teamed with the Government of Mozambique to protect and restore the ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park and to develop an ecotourism industry to benefit local communities.

History

Hunting Reserve: 1920-1959

The first official act to protect the Gorongosa region came in 1920, when the Mozambique Company ordered 1,000 square kilometers set aside as a hunting reserve for company administrators and their guests. Chartered by the government of Portugal, the Mozambique Company controlled all of central Mozambique between 1891 and 1940.

In 1935 Mr. Jose Henriques Coimbra was named warden and Jose. Ferreira became the reserve's first guide. That same year the Mozambique Company enlarged the reserve to 3,200 square kilometers to protect habitat for Nyala and Black Rhino, both highly prized hunting trophies. By 1940 the reserve had become so popular that a new headquarters and tourist camp was built on the floodplain near the Mussicadzi River. Unfortunately, it had to be abandoned two years later due to heavy flooding in the rainy season. Lions then occupied the abandoned building and it became a popular tourist attraction for many years, known as Casa dos Leões (Lion House).

After the Mozambique Company's charter ended, management of the reserve was transferred to the colonial government. Alfredo Rodriques was appointed Warden, replacing Jose Coimbra. Over the next 14 years Rodrigues initiated the first steps towards banning hunting and establishing a viable tourism business. In 1951 construction began on a new headquarters and other facilities at Chitengo camp, including a restaurant and bar. By the end of the 1950s more than 6,000 tourists were visiting annually and the colonial government had awarded the first tourism concession in the park. In 1955 the Veterinary and Animal Industry Services division of the colonial government assumed control of all wildlife management in Mozambique, including Gorongosa National Park. Gorongosa was named a national park by the Government of Portugal in 1960.

National Park: 1960-1980

Many improvements to the new park's trails, roads and buildings ensued. Between 1963 and 1965 Chitengo camp was expanded to accommodate 100 overnight guests. By the late 1960's, it had two swimming pools, a bar and nightclub, a restaurant serving 300-400 meals a day, a post office, a petrol station, a first-aid clinic, and a shop selling local handicrafts.

The late 1960s also saw the first comprehensive scientific studies of the Park, led by Kenneth Tinley, a South African ecologist. In the first-ever aerial survey, Tinley and his team counted about 200 lions, 2,200 elephants, 14,000 buffalos, 5,500 wildebeest, 3,000 zebras, 3,500 waterbuck, 2,000 impala, 3,500 hippos, and herds of eland, sable and hartebeest numbering more than five hundred.

Tinley also discovered that many people and most of the wildlife living in and around the park depended on one river, the Vundudzi, which originated on the slopes of nearby Mount Gorongosa. Because the mountain was outside the park's boundaries, Tinley proposed expanding them to include it as a key element in a "Greater Gorongosa Ecosystem" of about 8,200 square kilometers. He and other scientists and conservationists had been disappointed in 1966 when the government reduced the park's area to 3,770 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, Mozambique was in the midst of a war for independence launched in 1964 by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo). Fortunately the war had little impact on Gorongosa National Park until 1972, when a Portuguese company and members of the Provincial Volunteer Organization were stationed there to protect it. Even then, not much damage occurred, although some soldiers hunted illegally. In 1976, a year after Mozambique won its independence from Portugal, aerial surveys of the park and adjacent Zambezi River delta counted 6,000 elephants and about 500 lions.

Civil War: 1981-1994

Threatened by a popular new Marxist government next door, South Africa began arming and supplying a rebel army to destabilize it. In December 1981 Mozambican National Resistance (MNR, or RENAMO) fighters attacked the Chitengo campsite and kidnapped several staff, including two foreign scientists.

The violence increased in and around the Park after that. In 1983 it was shut down and abandoned. For the next nine years Gorongosa was the scene of frequent battles between opposing forces. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting and aerial bombing destroyed buildings and roads. The park's large mammals suffered terrible losses. Both sides in the conflict slaughtered hundreds of elephants for their ivory, selling it to buy arms and supplies. Hungry soldiers shot many more thousands of zebras, wildebeest, buffalos, and other hoofed animals. Lions and other large predators were gunned down for sport or died of starvation when their prey disappeared.

The civil war ended in 1992 but widespread hunting in the park continued for two more years. By that time many large mammal populations--including elephants, hippos, buffalos, zebras, and lions had been reduced by 90 percent or more. Fortunately, the park's spectacular birdlife emerged relatively unscathed.

Post-war: 1995-2003

A preliminary effort to rebuild Gorongosa National Park's infrastructure and restore its wildlife began in 1994 when the African Development Bank (ADB) started work on a rehabilitation plan with assistance from the European Union and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Fifty new staff were hired, most of them former soldiers. Baldeu Chande and Roberto Zolho, both employed by the Park before the war, returned to take leadership positions. Chande was director of the emergency program and Zolho was wildlife coordinator and warden. Over a five-year period this ADB initiative reopened about 100 kilometers of roads and trails and trained guards to slow illegal hunting.

Restoration: 2004-Present

In 2004 the Government of Mozambique and the US-based Carr Foundation agreed to work together to rebuild the park's infrastructure, restore its wildlife populations and spur local economic development--opening an important new chapter in the park's history.

Between 2004 and 2007 the Carr Foundation invested more than $10 million in this effort. During that time the restoration project team completed a 6,000-hectare (23 square mile) wildlife sanctuary and reintroduced buffalos and wildebeests to the ecosystem. They also began the reconstruction of Chitengo Safari Camp.

Due to the success of this initial three-year project, the Government of Mozambique and the Carr Foundation announced in 2008 that they had signed a 20-year agreement to restore and co-manage the park.

Ecology

Geology

The Park is nestled in a 4,000-square-kilometer section of the Great African Rift Valley system, Africa's most dramatic geological feature. The Rift extends from Ethiopia to central Mozambique. Massive tectonic shifts began forming the Rift about 30 million years ago. Other warpings, uplifts, and sinkings of the earth's crust over millennia shaped the plateaus on both sides and the mountain to the west. Mozambique's tropical savanna climate, with an annual cycle of wet and dry seasons, has added yet another factor to the complex equation: constant change in soil moisture that varies with elevation. The valley is located 21 kilometers west of Mount Gorongosa at 14 meters above sea level.

Hydrology

Gorongosa National Park protects a vast ecosystem defined, shaped, and given life by all the rivers that flow into Lake Urema. The Nhandungue crosses the Barue Plateau on its way down to the valley. The Nhandue and Mucombeze come from the north. Mount Gorongosa contributes the Vunduzi. Several smaller rivers pour down off the Cheringoma Plateau. Together they comprise the Urema Catchment, an area of about 7,850 square kilometers.

Lake Urema is located in the middle of the valley, about three-quarters of the way down from the Park's northern boundary. The Muaredzi River, flowing from the Cheringoma plateau, deposits sediments near the outlet of the lake slowing its drainage. This "plug" causes the Urema to greatly expand in the rainy season. Water that makes its way past this alluvial fan flows down the Urema River to the Pungue and into the Indian Ocean. In the flooded rainy season, water backs up into the valley and out onto the plains, covering as much as 200 square kilometers in many years. During some dry seasons, the lake's waters shrink to as little as 10 square kilometers. This constant expansion and retraction of the floodplains, amidst a patchwork of savanna, woodland, and thickets, creates a complex mosaic of smaller ecosystems that support a greater abundance and diversity of wildlife than anywhere else in the park.

Vegetation

Scientists have identified three main vegetation types supporting the Gorongosa ecosystem’s wealth of wildlife. Seventy-six percent is savanna — combinations of grasses and woody species that favor well-drained soils. Fourteen percent is woodlands — several kinds of forest and thickets. The rest is grasslands subjected to harsh seasonal conditions that prevent trees from growing. All three types are found throughout the system, with many different sub-types and varieties.

Mount Gorongosa has rainforests, montane grasslands, riverine forests along its rivers, and forests and savanna woodlands at lower elevations. Both plateaus are covered with a kind of closed-canopy savanna, widespread in southern Africa, called “miombo,” after the Swahili word for the dominant tree, a member of the brachystegia genus. About 20 percent of the valley’s grasslands are flooded much of the year.

Mount Gorongosa

The most serious human impact to the Greater Gorongosa Ecosystem is occurring on Mount Gorongosa. More than 2,000 people live on the mountain. At least 500 households are living on steep slopes above 700 meters in pristine montane forest that until recently was considered sacred and off-limits by local tradition. On the mountain, shifting agriculture and uncontrolled land use is rapidly destroying the forest. If this activity continues, the Vunduzi and Muera rivers--keys to life in the valley below--will be reduced to useless, polluted streams. Many rare or threatened species, including some endemics, will be lost. Cut areas of Mount Gorongosa's montane forest will take centuries to recover.

Wildlife

Gorongosa is home to an astounding diversity of animals and plants—some of which are found no where else in the world. This rich biodiversity creates a complex world where animals, plants and people interact. From the smallest insects to the largest mammals, each plays an important role in the Gorongosa ecosystem.

Many of the park's large herbivore populations were greatly reduced by years of war and poaching. However, almost all naturally occurring species-- including more than 400 kinds of birds and a wide variety of reptiles--have survived. With effective management and reintroductions of key species, wildlife populations will regain their natural numbers and help restore the park's ecological balance.

Lists of the Species of Gorongosa>

Tourism

Getting There

Air Travel

International flights depart from Johannesburg, South Africa to Beira, Mozambique three or four times a week. From Europe you can fly directly to Maputo from Lisbon and then take a regional flight to Beira or Chimoio. From the airport in Beira it’s a distance of 200 km (about a 3-hour drive) to Chitengo Safari Camp, in Gorongosa National Park. From Chimoio it is a distance of 135 km (about a 2-hour drive) to the park.

For private air charters there is a licensed airstrip at Chitengo Safari Camp, with a landing length of 1200 meters of hard earth. Advanced notification and authorization by the aeronautical authorities is required (from December to April the airstrip is closed due to the rains).

Rental Cars and Driving

Maputo and Beira both have Imperial and Avis rental car agencies. You can drive to the park on the EN1 highway fromMaputo or via the EN6 highway from Beira, which intersects the EN1 highway at Inchope. Both are tar roads. The 40 kilometers of EN1 from Inchope to the turn-off to the park is high-quality tar. From there it’s another 11 kilometers east on newly graded dirt to the park gate. The 18-kilometer dirt road from the gate to Chitengo is easily drivable in a two-wheel drive vehicle with good clearance. Be advised that during the rainy season (November–April) the road is only passable using a four-wheel drive vehicle.

During the dry season, you can drive a 2x2 sedan on most of the park's roads, although a 4x4 will get you more places and minimize your risk of getting stuck. Four-wheel drive is essential for driving to the base of Mount Gorongosa or exploring any other rugged terrain.

Bus (“Chapa”) from Beira

Buses leave Beira hourly for Chimoio or Inchope, but they do not come all the way to the park. You will need to get off at Inchope and take the bus to Vila Gorongosa. Ask the driver to let you off at the turn-off to the park, about 40 kilometers north of Inchope. From there, you will need transportation to Chitengo, a distance of about 29 kilometers. You will need to call the Park from Inchope (preferably from Beira or Chimoio) to request a ride.

Accomodations

Chitengo Safari Camp

First constructed in 1941, Chitengo hosted thousands of visitors from all over the world until 1983, when Mozambique’s civil war shut it down. It was mostly destroyed during the war, but re-opened in 1995.

There are 9 new bungalows located in a tranquil area of Chitengo each with 2 single beds or 1 double bed. All have mosquito netting, en-suite toilets, air-conditioning, and thatch chairs. Maximum occupancy: 2 persons. If required, there is WI-FI Internet access and a TV available for viewing films and local news.

Restaurant

Chitengo Safari Camp has a reasonably priced bar and restaurant serving authentic Mozambican breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Breakfast is included in the price of the bungalows.

Activities

Wildlife Game Drives

Trained guides can take you on early-morning and sunset game-viewing drives to view wildlife on the approximately 100 kilometers of game roads from Chitengo. The drives will traverse various ecosystems, including floodplains, miombo forest, and lowland savanna.

Self Game Drives

If you prefer to drive your own vehicle you can do a wildlife self game drive. You will be given a brief course on the safety rules for self driving on Park roads. If you visit during the rainy season, be sure your vehicle is four-wheel drive with good ground clearance. Sedan cars are not recommended for game drives.

Birding Safaris

There are birding safaris in the park and on Mount Gorongosa with expert guides.

Explore Mount Gorongosa

Mount Gorongosa is considered a sacred place by the local people. The mountain is a 1,800-meter, 600-square-kilometer massif whose rivers and streams sustain the park’s wildlife. Guided hikes will show you its many different kinds of forest, rare and endemic plants (including many orchids), birdlife, and waterfalls.

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