A government decree published on August 24th set aside 23,000 acres as the Mount Mabu Community Conservation Area in Mozambique.
This means that one of the wettest areas in southern Africa, known as the “butterfly forest,” will be protected, as will the 200-plus butterfly species that live there.
Mabu, and its somewhat isolated mountain chain slopes, contain very high rates of endemism: described as species found there and only there with few exceptions.
Mongabay were abreast of the news via a researcher whose work on Mount Mabu spanning over two decades has uncovered multiple species new to science, including the Mount Mabu forest viper, but more than anything else: butterflies.
Mount Mabu and the neighboring Mount Namuli play host to at least 200 different species of butterflies. Presented by Sir David Attenborough for the BBC in 2013, the renowned naturalist described it as the “butterfly forest,” and the name somewhat stuck.
Julian Bayliss, whose research trips have greatly expanded the understanding of species on Mount Mabu, described the mountains and their butterfly forests as “possibly the largest continuous block of [medium-altitude] forest type in southern Africa” in 2014, and pondered at the time what could possibly be done to protect its natural riches.
As GNN has previously reported, Mozambique has long been a tremendous challenge for conservationists, as one of Africa’s longest post-colonial civil wars and unchecked poaching rendered many of the nation’s parks and wild places void of wildlife.
Now stable and at peace, the nation is trying to rebuild its wildlife populations, but nothing could be better than protecting what already exists before there’s a need to rebuild it. The government decree, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment, and Fisheries, describes the reserve as “dedicated to the protection, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources by local communities.”
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A community management plan is in the works, but the outlook is positive, Mongabay writes, as the mountains are treated as sacred by those very locals.
A considerable number of protected spaces have been established since the end of the civil war, and now the country’s official conservation authority states that 25% of the national territory is preserved in some way, ranging from sustainable use to total preservation of wilderness.
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