MLA Multidisciplinary Lanscape Assessment |
Some results and experiences
Although analyses are still ongoing, a varied range of results is already available from the different surveys, including databases, reports, a model, and 'lessons learned' in general.
MOZAMBIQUE
Goods that contributed most to the community values of landscape units in Gorongosa National Park were water, land for agriculture and houses, construction materials (these included poles, fiber, thatching grass and reeds), firewood, general household and craft materials and various wild foods.
Villagers collected or used resources from areas of about 300 km2 for a village of 40 to 100 households.
Important lessons that emerged from the analysis as to the factors governing local valuation of landscape functions included the following:
Village landscapes are valued for the bundles of ecosystem goods and services that people derive from each location in the landscape.
- In terms of predicting the value of a given location, the preference-weighted sum of stocks of resources on a given site was a good predictor of the values local people assigned to that location. Neither distance, nor local traditional regulations or institutions played much of a role in determining the value of a location.
- Strictly enforced regulations, such as were prevalent in some areas of GNP and for some resources, did act to exclude users and hence greatly reduce the value assigned to the given location.
- The value assigned to a given site was completely determined by tangible benefit stocks. Non-visible ecosystem services, for example, were not identified as benefits and therefore did not contribute to the values assigned in this analysis.
- Confrontation of the respective models with field data from Muaredzi and Nhanchururu suggest a reasonable degree of belief in the models.
Spatial model of landscape value for one of the two villages studied
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Three-dimensional view of the Mauredzi village area taken from the south-west. The z-axis is magnified 10 times to highlight the spatial variation in predicted landscape value. The landscape colouring represents the predicted B/C (i.e. value) of the landscape to local community members. Highest value units in the landscape those in white and gold (the peak in the center of the image). Thereafter areas in light to darker blue and then red to dark red reflect decreasing landscape value. The major routes and tracks are marked in thin red lines with the house holds of the village marked in light blue. The blue swath of Urema River is evident in the bottom left corner and the Muredzi River crosses from right (east) to left (west) just to the foreground side of the village area. The two light blue patches to the east of the village area (along the main road to Muanza) are patches of dry forest that are of very high value to the community. |
Refer to Assessment of the value of woodland landscape function to local communities in Gorongosa and Muanza districts, Sofala province, Mozambique for more detail.
A more concise description may be found here.
Vegetation map of Muaredzi
The process of overlaying community and biodiversity evaluations produced better results for Muaredzi than for Nhanchururu, because vegetation units of the former corresponded much better with the units mapped by the CRUAT.
The overlay made an analysis of threat to valued landscape units possible: e.g. the forest types were allocated the highest conservation value and were also ranked by the CRUAT as being of high value during both the initial scoring exercises and subsequent field evaluations. This is where the greatest conflict can be anticipated between competing uses for conservation purposes and for multiple use by the Muaredzi community, and thus should be a logical focus for any local conservation efforts.
