Sacred Forests in Mozambique Prove More Resilient Than Other Woodlands
Researchers mapped 52 culturally protected forest patches in southern Mozambique and found they experience significantly less deforestation than surrounding areas. The discovery suggests that indigenous land management and cultural designation can be effective conservation tools—and should be formally recognized in national land-use planning.
Originaltitel: Mapping Spatiotemporal Changes of Evergreen Forest Patches that are Heritage Sites in Southern Mozambique using Google Earth Engine
<p>Using forests as burial and ceremonial places is a long-standing cultural practice in Mozambique. However, this information is still not translated into land-cover and land-use maps. Thus the locations of these forests and their descriptions remain unknown. To address this gap in the knowledge, this paper presents the results of mapping 52 local heritage sites in Inhambane, and analysing land-cover changes of two locally protected forest patches. Results from spatiotemporal change analysis show that these patches experienced fewer disturbances in comparison to other areas of vegetation.</p>