Connecting poverty & ecosystem services : Focus on Mozambique

All of the papers are available online at 1 The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was a four-year study requested by the United Nations Secretary General in 2001 to pro- vide an overview of the state of the global ecosystems and the consequences of ecosystem changes on human well-being. [...] Unfortunately, the level of poverty in the With few energy alternatives available, the majority of country substantially reduces resilience in the face of urban households are also dependent on charcoal and disasters and the effects are cumulative as natural assets woodfuel, and this is amplified in the densely popu- in the form of soil, biodiversity, etc. [...] Population density is 24.3 Mozambique consists of three basic geographic divi- people per sq km and the provinces of Zambezia and sions: the coastal belt has an elevation of less than 200 Nampula are the most populous with 39 per cent of m and covers 44 per cent of the country; the middle the total populatio (Mozambique Instituto Nacional plateau ranges from 200–1,000 m in elevation and de Estatis [...] With the exception of the highland zone group in the northern part of the country—the Sena toward the western border, the land is generally a low- and Ndau are prominent in the Zambezi valley, and lying plateau of moderate height, descending through the Tsonga dominate in southern Mozambique” a sub-plateau zone to the Indian Ocean (FAO (U. [...] Mozambique’s most the Rovuma River in the north to the Limpopo River important mangroves are located in the estuary rivers: mouth in the south and the miombo woodland the Messalo in Cabo Delgado Province, Zambezi in Niassa Reserve covers parts of Cabo Delgado Zambezia Province, Pungue in Sofala Province, Save Province and nearly one-third of Niassa Province in Sofala Province, Limpopo in Gaza Prov