For a man who spent his life studying the movements of wildlife, Roberto Zolho was most at peace when not moving at all—drifting in a kayak down the Guacheni channels, pausing to admire an egret, a kingfisher, or a sunlit curve in the reeds. In these secluded corners of Mozambique’s wetlands, he was not a former government official or a decorated scientist. He was simply a witness, content to observe the “amazing birdlife,” as he once wrote with characteristic understatement. Zolho’s legacy lies most visibly in Gorongosa National Park, once a paradise gutted by civil war. Appointed its administrator in 1996, he inherited a landscape where over 90% of large mammals had vanished. Rather than despair, he set about recovery with meticulous care—counting what was left, building systems for what might return, and working closely with the local community. It was his 2005 proposal for species reintroduction that laid the groundwork for one of the most remarkable wildlife restorations in history. By 2025, Gorongosa’s plains were again teeming with tens of thousands of animals, its predators prowling and its forests mending. Zolho saw conservation not as an exercise in nostalgia, nor as a fortress to be built against humanity. His career, spanning more than three decades across Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, and Australia, reflected a broader conviction: that biodiversity could only endure if local communities shared in its benefits. Whether coordinating climate resilience programs or leading cross-border conservation corridors, he insisted on integrating ecological goals with the aspirations of rural…This article was originally published on Mongabay