Written by Chloe Eckert and Magnus Sylvén
Marc Stalmas. Photo Credit: The Gorongosa Project
It is with profound sadness that we remember Dr. Marc Stalmans, who passed away on August 30th at the age of 66. As Science Director of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, Marc played a central role in one of the most significant rewilding efforts in the world. Born in the Congo to Belgian parents, Marc moved to Belgium as a teenager and trained as a forestry engineer before emigrating to South Africa in 1984. He went on to earn a master’s in botany and a PhD in landscape ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand, pairing academic research with decades of practical conservation work. (This section draws on reporting from Mongabay)
His training and fieldwork ultimately prepared him for his most defining work: guiding the science behind the restoration of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, where he helped lead one of the most significant rewilding efforts in the world. Under his leadership, Gorongosa became one of Africa’s best-studied national parks.
African buffalo is again forming the ecosystems of Gorongosa. Photo credit: Beto Tenente
Once known as the crown jewel of Africa’s national parks, Gorongosa lost more than 90% of its large mammals during Mozambique’s civil war (1977–1992). Leopards, African wild dogs, and spotted hyenas vanished, and only a handful of lions survived. With wildlife gone, grasslands grew over and the invasive shrub Mimosa pigra spread across wetlands.
Credits: Michael dos Santos
Rewilding in the park began in 2008. Alongside curbing poaching, more than 500 animals of nine species, including buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, elephants, hippos, wild dogs, hyenas, and leopards, were reintroduced. By 2018, large-herbivores were close to pre-war levels and lions were rebounding. In 2024, aerial counts recorded over 110,000 animals of 20 species, surpassing the totals from the 1960s and 70s.
Marc believed that Gorongosa should be both a thriving park and a center for science. Through the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, nearly 8,000 species were catalogued, including 200 new to science. He was deeply committed to training Mozambican students in ecology, helping build the capacity needed to protect the park into the future.
The hippo was one of nine species brought back to Gorongosa. Photo credits: Gorongosa
The Global Rewilding Alliance had the privilege of working with Marc on the report Taking Animals into Account – Africa Special Edition. He was generous with his time, offering guidance, feedback, and steady support throughout the process. In his case study on the Urema floodplain, Marc showed how one of Africa’s most productive wetland systems, once stripped of 90% of its large mammals and overrun by invasive plants during Mozambique’s civil war, has been brought back through protection, species reintroductions, and community engagement. Today it is once again a thriving biodiversity hotspot and a global model for wetland recovery.
Marc Stalmans proved, in both study and practice, that even after devastation, landscapes and communities can be revived. His legacy lives on in every thriving corner of Gorongosa, in its grasslands, forests, and wetlands, and in the next generation of ecologists carrying forward his vision.
Marc Stalmans holding a lion skull. Credits: Gorongosa