The fight is on to save Africa’s “lost Eden”, a national park buried in Mozambique recovering from decades of civil war, documentary-maker Bob Poole says.

Poole, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker for National Geographic, has spent years documenting conservation efforts in the Gorongosa National Park.

He is in Australia for the Nature Roars Back tour to share what he has discovered.

“Gorongosa roughly translates to a place of danger, and in some ways that rings true. For wildlife as well as conservation,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

Poole grew up in East Africa, where his father was the director of the Peace Corps and later the African Wildlife Foundation.

He first visited the Gorongosa National Park in 2008 and said he was staggered by how the wildlife had been killed or driven out.

“It was one of Africa’s greatest national parks. After 30 years of war, it was really decimated,” he said.

“The habitat was still there but the wildlife was almost all gone.”

When civil war broke out in Mozambique in the late 1970s the Gorongosa National Park became a key battleground between opposing forces.

Elephants were killed for their ivory, which was traded for guns and ammunition, and zebras and other animals were hunted for their meat.

“The park was pretty much left for dead,” Poole said.

The Gorongosa National Park is recovering from years of civil war. Photo: Supplied: Gina Poole/ABC

These days, Poole said illegal mining and logging still threatened the park, but new initiatives had given him reason to hope things could slowly improve.

Specifically, a public-private partnership struck between the Mozambican government and a team led by philanthropist Greg Carr in 2008 had seen a noticeable turnaround in the park’s fortunes.

The 20-year deal sees Carr, the government and international bodies work to conserve the park and attempt to bring back wildlife that has been lost.

Bob Poole said illegal mining and logging still threatened the park in Mozambique. Photo: Supplied: Gina Poole/ABC

Poole said the difference for the park in just eight years was impressive, but it had to be sustained.

“What I saw in my time there was extraordinary. The way that the wildlife just … exploded back onto the scene,” he said.

“If you come back in 20 years and go to the centre of that national park, it will be incredible.”

“If we just give it a chance or give it a bit of help – especially in a place like Africa, where nature is so resilient – it can bounce back.

Poole said the message he will be spreading on his tour around Australia this month was: “Conservation in Africa is a tough job, it just never goes away.”

“This is hope for African wildlife if we all care about.”

-ABC