I heard about The 2015 Lost Mountain Next Gen Symposium from one of my university professors. He let me know about it because biodiversity is a huge area of interest from me. In addition to that, I was excited to come here because I wanted to meet people from all around the world who are interested in the same things that I am. When you only speak with people from one  place or one school, the ideas stay small. When you come to a symposium like this, your ideas grow in size and strength.

I grew up in Gurue, which is actually very close to Mount Namuli – the mountain that Majka led the expedition up in 2014. I haven’t been up Mount Namuli myself, but when I heard that the ultimate goal of this symposium was to help create the next phase of the Lost Mountain Project on Mount Namuli, I knew I had to be involved – both to contribute my local knowledge but also to learn a lot and take it back home.

Where I come from, the biggest threat to biodiversity is poverty. Because people are poor, they do everything and anything to make sure they have things to eat – this includes things that cause significant damage to the environment. Some examples are uncontrolled burning of land, people don’t rotate crops, and people often cut down lots of trees in order to have firewood to sell. These all cause problems for the natural ecosystems.

I think that because the people in my community were born and raised there, they don’t actually know how special it really is. I believe that when people have the knowledge about the unique biodiversity that exists in that area and how much value it really has, they will want to participate in finding ways to care for it because of its natural worth.

In the few days I have been here at the symposium, I’ve already learned so much. The leadership training we participated in helped me to believe that I will be a part of leading my community towards new solutions that meet their needs while also protect the environment. The training pulled out the leader that was deep inside of me and gave me the strength to share it with others.

Salvador Nanvonamuquitxo is a Graduate student studying Forestry Engineering at the Uni-Zambeze Mocuba in Mozambique. Growing up as the son of a farmer, Salvador’s passion for the earth and the natural world around him took root at a young age. He is excited to be at the 2015 Lost Mountain Next Gen Symposium to learn more about environmental field research and community development.