107 / 148
93
Malaria have been reduced significantly since
2003 and are expected to drop further by 2015,
as shown in Figure 4.23.
Mozambique lost 5.5 per cent of its forests in
the 20 years between 1990 and 2010, but has
since launched reforestation projects which
have fostered denser forest cover in the wet and
fertile regions while thin savannah vegetation
characterizes the drier interior (Government
of Mozambique 2010). Figure 4.24 shows the
proportion of land area covered by forests.
The extent of carbon emissions is not well
documented in Mozambique and is not
considered a significant factor in environmental
sustainability. While the consumption of ozone
depleting substances has been increasing slowly
(Figure 4.25), this too has not been studied in
depth and does not appear significant.
Reverse biodiversity loss by 2010
The extent of protected areas has risen slightly
from 66 020 at the end of the war in 1992 to
67 300 by 2001, amounting to eight per cent of
the total surface area as shown in Figure 4.26.
Mozambique shares Lake Niassa with Malawi
and Tanzania (where it is known respectively
as Lake Malawi or Lake Nyasa) and thus is rich
in biodiversity of aquatic resources, much of
it endemic, with less threat of water pollution
and overfishing than the Malawi side of the lake
due to low population densities. However, the
freshwater fish biodiversity in Mozambique’s
part of the lake is less well studied.
Coastal drainage sites such as the Zambezi,
the Rovuma, the Pungwe and the Buzi systems
on the east coast of Mozambique also contain
species that occur only in that area. However
development activities are not always compatible
with conservation of diversity and this is not
integrated into development planning due to a
lack of awareness and access to information.
Mozambique is also rich in birdlife, mammals,
reptiles and amphibians, but the number of
threatened species recorded jumped from 41 in
1996 to 108 in 2003 as shown in Figure 4.27, in
part due to greater access to areas of study.
Source: SADC and SARDC 2008
Protected areas share of total land area
in Mozambique
0
8%
Figure 4.24
Figure 4.25
Figure 4.26
Change in proportion of land area
covered by forests in Mozambique
56
54
52
50
48
46
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Percentage
Source: FAO 2009, 2010
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
2003
2008
2009
Millions tonnes of ozone depleting substances
Source: Government of Mozambique 2008
Consumption of ozone layer
depleting substances in Mozambique
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Thousands species
Number of threatened species
in Mozambique
Source: IUCN 2003, SADC and SARDC 2008
Figure 4.27