149
vertebrates. With Gorongosa and the nation’s six other national parks, Mozambique
remains far below—in physical extant and connecting corridor options—many
other smaller countries in Africa.
Moreover, at 309,496 m
2
, Mozambique is a third the size of Africa’s largest
nation, Algeria. The country’s fortunes are largely dependent—not on a Kenya’s
ecotourism revenues, or not yet—upon small-farming production, an economy
essentially beholden to agricultural subsistence; coal and mineral sands, and robust
predictions for coming exports of liquefied natural gas.
6
Overall size and demographics loom large. There are countervailing forces
against conservation biology in Mozambique, a country that is economically 16th
out of 54 African countries, and 25th in terms of national GDP within the world’s
second largest continent. In as much as Africa is rightly hailed as the last best hope,
allegedly for large megafauna such as lions and elephants, hippos, and giraffes,
Mozambique indicators are critical bellwethers of the Continent-wide outlook for
wildlife. The population of Mozambique will likely become 40% urban by 2040,
7
hopefully, with a continuing stable government.
But most notably, as of 2017, Mozambique was considered to be the second
poorest nation on earth, with a per capita income of US$429, just after the poorest,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), at US$439.00.
8
Ironically, it was in
the far-east of the DRC that Africa’s first national park was created, Virunga in
1925.
9
Three hundred and ten miles across the Mozambique Channel lies
Madagascar, 227,800 mi
2
with 20 national parks, and a per capita income of
US$1477.00 making it the 10th poorest country in the world.
The idea—advanced by most conservationists who look at any nation where
human poverty surrounds protected areas—was to engender preconditions within and
outside Mozambique’s Gorongosa that made it not only a refuge for the megafauna
of East Africa, but also a human rights refuge. This formula, as Jane Goodall early on
described at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park (one of the smallest in Africa,
at 13.5 m
2
), turns out to be the only pan-rational concept that can work. In light of
the estiated one million people+ who had been killed during the decades’ long conflicts and no Crimes Against Humanity charges ever levied because of a nation-wide
and unconditional amnesty law enacted throughout the Civil War, it would behoove
conservationists to bring some semblance of ecological sanity to the troubled lands.
“Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn
war" Isaiah, 2:4, repeated in Micah 4:3. Such was the case with Gorongosa National
Park in northwestern Mozambique.
6 See “Mozambique’s Economic Outlook – Governance challenges holding back economic potential,” by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, December 2016, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/
dam/Deloitte/za/Documents/africa/ZA_Mozambique%20country_report_25012017.pdf,
Accessed March 24, 2019.
7 ibid., Deloitte.
8 See
https://www.focus-economics.com/blog/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world,
Accessed
March 24, 2019.
9 See https://virunga.org/about.
17.1 Time-Out in Africa
vertebrates. With Gorongosa and the nation’s six other national parks, Mozambique
remains far below—in physical extant and connecting corridor options—many
other smaller countries in Africa.
Moreover, at 309,496 m
2
, Mozambique is a third the size of Africa’s largest
nation, Algeria. The country’s fortunes are largely dependent—not on a Kenya’s
ecotourism revenues, or not yet—upon small-farming production, an economy
essentially beholden to agricultural subsistence; coal and mineral sands, and robust
predictions for coming exports of liquefied natural gas.
6
Overall size and demographics loom large. There are countervailing forces
against conservation biology in Mozambique, a country that is economically 16th
out of 54 African countries, and 25th in terms of national GDP within the world’s
second largest continent. In as much as Africa is rightly hailed as the last best hope,
allegedly for large megafauna such as lions and elephants, hippos, and giraffes,
Mozambique indicators are critical bellwethers of the Continent-wide outlook for
wildlife. The population of Mozambique will likely become 40% urban by 2040,
7
hopefully, with a continuing stable government.
But most notably, as of 2017, Mozambique was considered to be the second
poorest nation on earth, with a per capita income of US$429, just after the poorest,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), at US$439.00.
8
Ironically, it was in
the far-east of the DRC that Africa’s first national park was created, Virunga in
1925.
9
Three hundred and ten miles across the Mozambique Channel lies
Madagascar, 227,800 mi
2
with 20 national parks, and a per capita income of
US$1477.00 making it the 10th poorest country in the world.
The idea—advanced by most conservationists who look at any nation where
human poverty surrounds protected areas—was to engender preconditions within and
outside Mozambique’s Gorongosa that made it not only a refuge for the megafauna
of East Africa, but also a human rights refuge. This formula, as Jane Goodall early on
described at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park (one of the smallest in Africa,
at 13.5 m
2
), turns out to be the only pan-rational concept that can work. In light of
the estiated one million people+ who had been killed during the decades’ long conflicts and no Crimes Against Humanity charges ever levied because of a nation-wide
and unconditional amnesty law enacted throughout the Civil War, it would behoove
conservationists to bring some semblance of ecological sanity to the troubled lands.
“Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn
war" Isaiah, 2:4, repeated in Micah 4:3. Such was the case with Gorongosa National
Park in northwestern Mozambique.
6 See “Mozambique’s Economic Outlook – Governance challenges holding back economic potential,” by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, December 2016, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/
dam/Deloitte/za/Documents/africa/ZA_Mozambique%20country_report_25012017.pdf,
Accessed March 24, 2019.
7 ibid., Deloitte.
8 See
https://www.focus-economics.com/blog/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world,
Accessed
March 24, 2019.
9 See https://virunga.org/about.
17.1 Time-Out in Africa