Miombo Forest Monitoring to Help Combat #AfricaClimateCrisis

A high-level regional meeting on the protection of indigenous woodlands was held under the theme; "For Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Miombo in Building Resilience to Climate Change and Protection of the Great Zambezi" in Maputo. It culminated in the adoption of the Maputo Declaration on the Sustainable Management and Conservation of Indigenous Woodlands, a transnational declaration by nine African countries to protect and conserve Miombo woodlands along the Zambezi Basin.

Miombo woodlands are tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrub-land biomes located primarily in Central Africa. They are classified as natural shock absorbers from the effects of climate change and critical absorbers of greenhouse gasses.

The vast African dryland forest ecosystem covering close to 2.7 million square kilometres across Angola, the DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are characterized by the dominance of Brachystegia species, either alone or in association with Julbernardia and Isoberlinia species.