Newswise — Idaho native Greg Carr signed a formal agreement furthering Boise State University faculty and student research opportunities in Africa's Gorongosa National Park. Carr has entered into a 20-year partnership with the Mozambican Government to restore this important ecological “laboratory.”

The agreement, signed Sept. 8, includes providing inexpensive housing for Boise State student researchers, helping to establish relationships with world-class academic and scientific institutions such as Harvard, Oxford and Princeton, and promoting student exchanges.

The Gorongosa Restoration Project already has created many unique research opportunities for Boise State students and the greater Boise community, including studies sponsored by the Intermountain Bird Observatory. And a young female student from Mozambique currently is interning at the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Lucky Peak, learning important scientific skills and principles she can take with her when she returns to her native country.

The park spans 1,456 square miles but to Carr it contains “one million acres of unanswered questions.” The park features majestic landscapes in Africa’s Great Rift Valley and once contained the largest density of wildlife on the continent of Africa. However, during a generation of civil conflict from the 1960s to the 1990s, soldiers and professional hunters killed more than 95 percent of the park’s large species, both carnivores and herbivores.

In 2008, the Carr Foundation launched a $40 million multidisciplinary restoration effort to train and hire a new ranger force, reintroduce wildlife populations, create a science research laboratory, restart tourism, and assist local communities near the park with health care, education, improved farming and employment opportunities in Gorongosa.

Carr and his team also created a film production company in Mozambique to document the restoration, using media to educate and inspire people around the world about the love of nature and appreciation for biodiversity.

Boise State presented Carr with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at May 2015 Commencement for his commitment to the improvement of human welfare.

For those wanting to learn more, PBS will premiere a six-hour series about Gorongosa on Tuesday, Sept. 22, filmed by Emmy-winning wildlife cameraman Bob Poole. The first two episodes will air on Idaho Public Television beginning at 8 p.m., preceded by a 7 p.m. showing of “Into Africa: The Idaho-Gorongosa Connection.”