Mount Mabu

In 2005 a researcher looking at satellite imagery for conservation planning noticed a large block of dark green on an inselberg in Zambezia that nobody had surveyed, and an expedition in 2008 confirmed it: around seven thousand hectares of closed-canopy mid-altitude rainforest, the largest known in southern Africa, holding species new to science including a viper, a chameleon and several butterflies. Local communities knew the forest well; the scientific world did not.

Background

Mount Mabu rises to approximately 1,700 metres in northern Mozambique. Its forest was well known to local people, and the first scientific visit came in 2005, from a team of the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust joined by several ornithologists. The site had been picked out on Google Earth during a search for unknown wildlife hotspots in Africa, which is why it is often called the Google Forest. Scientists from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens followed in 2008. Surveys have listed 126 bird species, among them seven newly found populations of globally threatened birds such as the Thyolo alethe. Two Mozambican NGOs, Justica Ambiental and RADEZA, work with nearby communities toward a conservation area.

Source: Wikipedia, "Mount Mabu"

Highlights

• The closed canopy - around seven thousand hectares of intact mid-altitude rainforest.
• The new species - a viper, chameleon and butterflies described since 2008.
• The inselberg - the granite massif the forest grows on.
• The discovery story - a forest found on satellite images in 2005.

When to go

May to September is the drier season and the practical window. The rains from November to March make the tracks impassable and the forest paths dangerous. Leeches are present in the wet months.

Practical notes

Access is a genuine trek with camping and no facilities; guides must be arranged in the villages below. Roads to the trailhead are poor and need a four-wheel drive. The forest is under pressure from clearance at the edges.

Nearby

Gurue and Namuli are northwest, and Lugela is the nearest town.

Key facts