AllAfrica has launched an eight-part podcast series, Wild Basil, featuring remarkable women who contributed to peace and development through their innovative work on biodiversity and conservation and addresses the competition for scarce resources in Southern Africa, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, and South Africa. Above all, their work contributes to conflict prevention and resolution in their communities and their countries.

[AllAfrica's elevation of the voices of African peacebuilders is supported by funding from the philanthropic Carnegie Corporation of New York.] 

Episode 2 introduces Milagre Nuvunga. After Mozambique's independence in 1975, Milagre Nuvunga joined the generation of young people assigned to various aspects of national reconstruction. And so her career as a forester began, giving her the opportunity to begin her lifelong commitment to protecting forests, the people living in them, as well as the livelihoods that are dependent upon them.

After years of study and international work in conservation and bio-diversity, Milagre Nuvunga was appointed National Director for the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, the first woman to hold that position in Africa. After leaving the Ministry she settled in Chimoio in central Mozambique, where she founded an organization to establish long-term integrated sustainable development.

[36min 26secs]

Produced by MUVA and directed by Luize Guimeraes Scherer Navarra and Michael Quenen, with support from Stephanie Urdang and others.