This ongoing project at Mount Moco has the ultimate aim of increasing Afromontane forest cover at Angola’s highest mountain. Mount Moco currently has 85 hectares of forest, the second largest area of Afromontane forest in the country. These forests are important for the conservation of the Endangered Swierstra’s Francolin and a wide variety of other localised biodiversity.

We are working with the villagers of Kanjonde to reduce their impacts on the threatened Afromontane forests, and hope to adjust their resource use behaviour so that it becomes sustainable and allows forest to recover towards it former extent. We have demonstrated fuel efficient stoves to the villagers and now hope to introduce a stove into each household, to reduce the amount of wood used for cooking. We are also raising environmental awareness, especially among children in the village. During this phase of the project we also plan to investigate alternative sources for wood used in construction, as large trees are still being felled for construction purposes. Options currently being considered are planting bamboo or other fast growing trees that are easily cultivated.

In order to restore the forest, we have started a nursery of native forest trees, cared for by people from Kanjonde village. This year we hope to expand this nursery and start replanting forest trees from the nursery as soon as the trees are large enough.

We will continue to motivate to local leaders for the formal recognition of the area as a reserve, and encourage visitors to the mountain. This we hope will eventually lead to the formation of a locally owned ecotourism operation that allows villagers of Kanjonde to derive and income from protecting the forests and its biodiversity. We also hope to strengthen collaboration with Angolan-based individuals and organisations during the year, so the project is eventually run by Angolans, for Angolans.