Jorge Ferrão

Professor in ecosystem Management and Ecology in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Universidade Pedagogica do Maputo. Holds a PhD from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 

Between 2000 to 2007 he worked  as International Coordinator of the Transfrontier Conservation Parks in Southern Africa (Great Limpopo Transfrontier Parks), in particular, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. As from 2007 he became the Rector of Lurio University, in Nampula, northern parts of Mozambique. Public university. From 2010 to 2013 he became the Chairperson of Association of Portuguese Speaking Countries Universities (AULP) with over 140 university members and 20 affiliates. 

In 2015 he became the Minister of Education and Human Development. In 2018, again, Rector of Pedagogic University in Maputo, the first created after independence, in 1975 and the largest university of the country, with over 66.000 students.  Currently is a board member of Biofund which deals with supporting and financing of national parks in Mozambique.

He is a Researcher in field of ecosystems management, agroecosystems  and sustainable agriculture and development, impacts of climate change in environment and, higher education in Mozambique and Portuguese speaking countries. 

"Our teachers have been the ones shaping our character and future. They inspire hope, imagination and love. In countries like Mozambique teaching has been so important to take the country into a different level without poverty and permanent social and political conflicts."