MONTE NAMÚLI
The Namúli massif covers an area of approximately 200 km² with altitudes above 1,200 meters, incorporating a complex of granite inselbergs linked by the Muretxa Plateau. It is one of the most biodiverse areas in the country, with forests and pastures of the Eastern Afromontane Ecosystem above 1,700 meters. Continued population growth has increased pressure on local evergreen rainforests, resulting in increased deforestation. The fieldwork activities in Mount Namúli were carried out in three phases.
Phase 1 was carried out from 01 to 14 July 2023 and consisted in four main activities: 1) Workshop at the local level with local stakeholders (institutions at the district level and communities leaders); 2) Interviews and focus groups with community members and local entities; 3) Farm-household survey;4) 4) Setting the points for the biodiversity inventory that will be carried out in the next reporting period.
Phase 2 was carried out from 02 September to 02 October 2023 and consisted in: 1) Setting the remaining points for the biodiversity inventory which was not possible during the first field work in Namuli, due to meteorological conditions.; 2) Carry out the biodiversity inventory.
Phase 3 was carried out from 13 to 21 July 2024, where two local workshops were held, one with district stakeholders; and the second with community members. These workshops intended to disseminate the preliminary results of the project (based on previous field work activities carried out in the study area) and discuss and validate the proposed strategy to promote local development and biodiversity conservation in Mount Namúli.
Collection of socioeconomic data
Methodology
The activities were carried out in three parts: 1) interviews with the community leader and/or existing local structure; 2) interviews with households in different land uses: i) areas of native forests; ii) recently opened (less than 3 years old)
agricultural areas; and, iii) agricultural areas
in use for more than 10 years; and, 3) identification and listing of existing flora and birds.
12 households were interviewed: 7 in Macuane and 5 in Chissano administrative posts.
Preliminary Results
From the household's interviews:
- Agriculture is the main source of subsistence (mostly for consumption), followed by charcoal production (predominant in Macuane) and firewood cutting (predominant in Chissano) for income generation.
- Communities recognized the scarcity of forest resources species with high calorific value and a decrease in land productivity, due to intensive use.
- Fallow
was identified as an alternative to restore productivity. For
biodiversity conservation measures such as reduction of fires, the
selection of older plants to produce charcoal and firewood were
mentioned.
- Biodiversity indicators perceived as important for the sustainability/maintenance of agricultural productivity are: trees, shrubs, grasses, planting fruit trees that attract birds, raising cattle. These are considered to improve soil quality through the incorporation of plant material and manure in the soil during plowing.
- Human-wildlife conflict was mentioned, referring specifically to Monkeys.
Regarding birds observation:
- Methodologically, the results revealed the importance of considering richness and diversity of terrestrial species alone to focus the study on the effect of deforestation and avoid the confounding effects of other habitat differences across study areas.
- Regarding the composition of bird communities by habitat guilds, we observed that Maguaza (in Chissano) had a striking minimum share of forest and dense woodland species (15%), the maximum proportions of birds of woodland and savannah (66%), as well as those of open and semi-open habitats (19%), which may reflect the highest level of deforestation in Maguaza.
- Species richness was the highest in natural forest and recent crop field immersed in the forest matrix; it declines gradually to the partially deforested parcel with scrubs, and reaches a minimum in old crop fields.
- The proportion of forest and dense woodland species is maximum (70%) in natural coastal forest, gradually declines to 10% in the deforested/savannized state, where woodland and savannah species represent 90% of all recorded individuals; it rises again to an intermediate level, similar to the young crop field immersed in the forest matrix, where forest and savannah species have more balanced proportions.
- Functional diversity peaks in stages 2 (young crop field immersed in a forest matrix) and 4 (older crop fields with forest fragments within the agricultural matrix), as these are the stages with more balanced proportions of forest and savannah species.