Mozambique Flashcards
(16 cards)
History
1-5th century, Banthu people entered Mozambique and started enslaving local communities (San hunters and gatherers, ancestors of the Khoisan peoples)
8th century - “Colonization” from Arabs. Mainly to trade and spread Islam
1489-1975: Portuguese colonization - introduced Christianity
1975-1992: Civil war
1992-2025: Frelimo won the civil war and has been in power since
Mozambique today
Culturally diverse country with at least 20 dialects/languages
Maputo: capital
Multiple biomes
Health and education
Compared to Denmark, the total population and area is much bigger, while the gross national income per capita, life expectancy and total expenditure on health per capita is much lower.
Mozambique:
Literacy level - 63.42%
Poverty level - 63.3%
Denmark:
Literacy level - 99%
Poverty level - 0.40%
Biodiversity
Many more amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds than in Denmark
Biogeography of endemic species
Scientists started to visit Mozambique’s mountains and recording a large number of new endemic species.
Was delayed due to civil war and language
South East Africa Montane Archipelago (SEAMA)
At least 127 plant, 45 vertebrate and 44 invertebrate species are endemic, including two endemic genera of plant and reptile
Research
It may take between 2-3 centuries to achieve at least one sampling event per grid cell in the entire continent.
Very little research in Africa, especially in Mozambique
Gap between foreigner and local research is also increasing. Most research done by foreigners
Conservation
10 national parks
3 national reserves
4 transfrontier areas
29% (almost a third) of the country is protected area
in 2014, the contribution from the international community covered about 81% of the running costs of the areas - 18 million USD
Half a million people live inside the parks
The case of Taratibu
” we catch armed poachers, drop them at the police station to find them again a week later with their own weapon”
KBA’s
Maybe a way to locate the best areas to preserve?
A global standard for the identification of key biodiversity areas
Aims:
- Harmonize existing approaches to the identification of important sites for biodiversity
- Support identification of important sites for elements of biodiversity not considered in existing approaches
- Provide a system that can be applied consistently and in a repeatable manner by different users and institutions in different places over time
- Ensure that KBA identification is objective, transparent, and rigorous through application of quantitative thresholds
- Provide decision-makers with an improved understanding of why particular sites are important for biodiversity
Besides biodiversity, Mozambique is also rich in other resources..
Gold
Coal
Aluminum
Rubies
All these resources could be used to help develop a country devastated by war if it wasn’t for CORRUPTION
Corruption in Mozambique
Loan scandals
Manipulation of voting numbers
Economy
More is imported than exported
Tourism makes just 3.4% of the countries’ GDP
Less than 1% (1 million) comes from mining (estimates of 50 millions illegally leaves the country
Large areas of trees are cut, but only few trees will be taxed on, and the rest, illegally sent to China
Threats to biodiversity
1000 football fields of not just trees, but also habitat for many species is disappearing every single day
Poaching eradicated most of the big mammal populations - the two rhino species were extinct and most of the mammal populations were either locally extinct or migrated to other countries
Urbanization - population growth will expose many species to the threat of urbanization
Things to think about…
How do we prevent the destruction of the natural habitat?
* Current legislation forbids companies from cutting down forests but the trees are still cut down - So the problem might not be the law itself
- Do we also forbid people who live inside the parks to cut down the forest and kill the animals for food? - How else will they eat?
- Do we remove the people from the parks? - to where?
Current issues dealing with people living inside parks
Should people starve because the government placed a Natural Park where they live?
Should people be deprived of their right to grow big families, have access to schools and enjoy better accessibility?
Should people just watch a her of elephants step on their crops and lose the only way out they have to survive during winter?
Should people just accept that venomous snakes will potentially bite their children instead of killing every kind of snake?
Is the local people impact that high that it can completely destroy the parks?
