Mount Mabu is a mountain in northern Mozambique. It is famous for its old-growth rain forest. Mount Mabu is approximately 1,700 metres (5,600 feet) high, and the forest covers about 7,000 hectares (27 square miles). Mount Mabu is well-known by local people, but the Mabu forest and its extremely diverse wildlife were unknown to plant and animal scientists until 2005.[1] A team of scientists from the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) and several ornithologists visited it after browsing Google Earth in 2005. [2] In 2008, there was another visit by scientists from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens; they browsed Google Earth's satellite view to look for potential unknown wildlife hotspots in Africa.[3][4] It is frequently referred to as the "Google Forest".[5][3][6] It forms part of a proposed ecoregion, to be called the South East Africa Montane Archipelago (SEAMA).[7]
Habitations
There are communities living around Mount Mabu. The closest are Nangaze, Nvava, and Limbue. The mountain plays a crucial role in the lives of these communities. The communities' resort to the mountain for protection, animal protein, smallholding, foraging, and traditional ceremonies – mucutu in the present. These activities have generated a wealth of local knowledge about the Mountain that is yet to be explored in association with the growing interest on Mabu. In their cosmology Mount Mabu is a moral subject that needs to be respected.
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