Miombo Landscape

The Miombo Woodlands, covering 2.7 million km2 (270 million hectares) in ten countries in Southern Africa, is the second largest forest ecosystem in the world, after the Taiga in Siberia. It contains an estimated 8500 species of higher plants, over 54% of which are endemic. The preservation of the Miombo has an important role to stop climate change and biodiversity loss.  Over eighty million rural people and thirty million urban dwellers rely on miombo woodlands for livelihoods. 

 

Deforestation in the Miombo is accelerating: 1.5 million km2 have been lost since 2006 and forest loss is accelerating. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the main driver of deforestation: the poorest local population cutting and burning forests to grow crops for subsistence and income. Unsustainable timber harvesting is an additional major cause of forest degradation, where the most valuable timber are logged out selectively.  Furthermore, rising demand for fuelwood and for charcoal production drives further forest degradation. Fuel wood is used in rural areas for cooking, whereas charcoal is transported to urban and semi-urban areas. 

 

Communities are a crucial part of the forest ecological system. Our aim is to empower the local people, giving visibility to their local ecological knowledge and including them in innovative and sustainable agricultural systems.

 

The Miombo Woodlands and humans are integrated parts of complex social-ecological systems. Services provided by these ecosystems play a crucial role in supporting human livelihoods. Miombo Forest well managed can offer long-term natural solutions for climate change, biodiversity conservation, and poverty alleviation.