When a Million-Acre National Park Becomes a Classroom

Zito Bande has always been drawn to water. After completing undergraduate studies in aquaculture at the Gaza Polytechnic Institute in Chokwe, Mozambique, he interned with the federal agency that manages all conservation areas in the country. But that was an office job, and Bande felt the itch to be in the field. So, when applications opened up for the two-year Master’s in Conservation Biology program at Gorongosa National Park, during which students live, study, and work in one of the largest national parks on the African continent, he leapt at the chance. Now he is using invertebrates as an indicator of water health to study the impact of land use on water quality.

Gorongosa has the only master’s program in the world run entirely within a national park, says , a tropical chemical ecologist who helped start the program in 2017. Training conservation biologists in a protected area gives students a singular perspective on what it means to manage