INTO AFRICA
Harvest – Women sort recycled materials for transport to the mainland, part of Bazaruto’ s circular economy.
produce – enough to feed the community, with the surplus sold in Vilankulos on the mainland for income. Nearby, women gather recyclable materials from the beaches and sort them for transport off the island. There’ s even a conservation club for schoolchildren, where those who excel in maths and science earn a spot and spend afternoons learning about the ecosystem around them. When I visited, they were planting young trees – small, hopeful gestures towards a more sustainable future.
Conservation Club – Young students plant trees as part of a local initiative led by African Parks.
When most people think of conservation, they imagine wilderness – vast, untouched places far from human life. But Bazaruto is different. This archipelago off Mozambique’ s coast is home to both wild beauty and a thriving human community. Around five thousand people live on the islands, many of them fishermen who have depended on the ocean for generations. Here, the challenge isn’ t keeping people out of nature; it’ s helping people and nature coexist.
I travelled to Bazaruto as part of a collaboration with African Parks, an organisation managing protected areas across Africa in partnership with local communities. Their work in Bazaruto struck me as deeply hopeful. Instead of drawing hard lines between humans and wildlife, they’ re finding ways for both to thrive.
Walking through the main village on Bazaruto Island, you can see the results of this approach everywhere. There’ s a large vegetable garden where locals grow fresh
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