By Andrew Kingman | Project Advisor
Cyclone Idai had and continues to have a huge impact on the people living in the buffer zone of the Chimanimani National Reserve in central Mozambique. One of Micaia Foundation's principal areas of work, these communities live in and around some of the richest plant-based biodiversity in Mozambique. The cyclone had a devastating impact on farms, households, and infrastructre, and many families lost loved ones. Yet people are so incredibly resilient; with help from Micaia and dozens of other agencies, famlies have rebuilt, planted seeds, and coped with limited food aid to get them through to the new harvest. And things were looking good, as the photo of one community member in her maize field shows.
Alongside this critical work, Micaia is working with communities to help restore areas of the natural forest that were destroyed in the cyclone. These forests are a vital source of medicine, food, firewood and income (from seling natural wild harvested products).
In the last three months, our efforts have concentrated on reinvigorating the community Natural Resource Management Committees that establish and monitor implementation of plans to govern access to and use of natural resources in the community. It is with these committees that Micaia has been workng on forest restoration. The second photo shows one of the dozens of village meetings we have been having to help the Committees get going again after the cyclone.
We have been greatly encouraged by the efforts local peope have been making to ensure that the seedlngs get establshed, in some cases (as the photo demonstrates) protectng the pant from animals.
Sadly, just as things were looking better, the Chimanimani region suffered a period of torrential rains and renewed flooding. Yes, it is the rainy season, and we often have big rains, but the severity of the storms is in line with projections of climate change that show this central part of Mozambique suffering ever more volatile weather patterns with greater frequency of extreme weather events.
We hope and believe that the forest restoration work will not be too badly impacted by the floods, thogh some loss of plants is to be expected. Tragically, many families will have lost their crops again, and will face another year of serious struggle.
Micaia will continue to work with the people of Chimanimani. Their resilience will get them through this latest set back.
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