Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report - Biodiversity Foundation for Africa

Miombo Ecoregion Report, page 44
6. CONSERVATION VISION AND AREAS OF BIOLOGICAL
IMPORTANCE
6.1 Vision Statement
In 50 years the peoples and nations of the region would like to have:
"A biologically diverse and ecologically functional Miombo Ecoregion that meets and sustains
human needs and development through the sustainable use of natural resources, landscapes,
species and environmental processes, thereby providing both the resources and the incentives
for conserving biodiversity."
The workshop understood that "biologically diverse" signifies the maintenance of existing levels
of species diversity and the number and status of endemics.
6.1.1 Rationale
The biophysical features and processes that maintain ecological resilience and integrity in the
Miombo Ecoregion include:
� Complex surface/subsurface hydrological processes that lead to slow release of water from
watersheds and catchments and delayed or regulated water flow in major rivers
� Regulatory function of woodlands in hydrological processes and nutrient cycling
� Mosaic of habitats at several scales, including the broad landscape scale
� Mobility of organisms between habitats/landscape units including humans, livestock and
wildlife
� High carbon landscape in which carbon sequestration maintains integrity and resilience and
influences microbial processes, nutrient cycling and vegetative regeneration
� Dominance of megaherbivores with episodic outbreaks of insect herbivores
� Interrelationship of hydrology, wildlife movement, and human settlements
� Fire.
The ecoregion contains a number of unique or important habitats or communities, it is a centre of
Caesalpinoid diversity and supports unique 'underground' trees, a high fungal and termite
diversity, and a number of keystone vertebrates such as elephant, buffalo and hippo. The
ecoregion is also important for carbon storage and sequestration, as well as for the albedoreducing
effects of its extensive woodland canopy cover.
Perhaps the key socio-economic feature of the Miombo Ecoregion is the prevalence of livelihood
strategies based on indigenous knowledge and land use systems. These are adapted to low
population densities over a wide biogeographic area. Low nutrient and protein systems,
widespread use of timber and non-timber forest products and seasonal movements of livestock
and wildlife also characterise the area. Thus conservation in the ecoregion should seek to
maintain and sustain:
� Biophysical features and processes that maintain ecological resilience and integrity
� Ecological processes that produce essential goods and services that sustain human
livelihoods