Text, photos by Janado Nazare Cher
As part of the monitoring of activities funded by the Portuguese Embassy and Portuguese Cooperation, António Costa Moura, Portuguese Ambassador to Mozambique, made a two-day visit to Gorongosa National Park, in order to learn about some of the Park’s programs, which help in the development of local communities, focusing on Peace Clubs, coffee and honey production, conservation, tourism and science.
Ambassador Costa Moura began his visit with Gorongosa’s Sustainable Development Programs, including the coffee and honey processing factories, where he had the opportunity to learn about the entire coffee and honey value chain, followed by a visit to the consumer production fields in the Gorongosa Mountains.
Afterwards, he visited the Peace Clubs program, which receives funding from Portuguese Cooperation, where he presented certificates to the children of ex-combatants who had completed short courses in plumbing and refrigeration.
The Portuguese Ambassador to Mozambique continued his visit, first in the Tourism sector, where he went on safari in order to understand how the Gorongosa ecosystem works and all its biodiversity; in Conservation, where he visited the Pangolin rehabilitation center and, finally, in the Science sector, where he had the opportunity to better understand the Bio-Education program, namely the Master’s degree in Conservation Biology, taught at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory in Gorongosa National Park.
The Bio-Education program guides Mozambican students, biologists and conservation leaders in biodiversity conservation research through practical training workshops, research grants and higher education opportunities, some of which are funded by Portuguese Cooperation.
