MIOMBO ECOREGION VISION REPORT Jonathan Timberlake & Emmanuel Chidumayo December 2001 (published 2011) Occasional Publications in Biodiversity No. 20 WWF - SARPO MIOMBO ECOREGION VISION REPORT 2001 (revised August 2011) by Jonathan Timberlake & Emmanuel Chidumayo Occasional Publications in Biodiversity No. 20 Biodiversity Foundation for Africa P.O. Box FM730, Famona, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe PREFACE The Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report was commissioned in 2001 by the Southern Africa Regional Programme Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF SARPO). It represented the culmination of an ecoregion reconnaissance process led by Bruce Byers (see Byers 2001a, 2001b), followed by an ecoregion-scale mapping process of taxa and areas of interest or importance for various ecological and bio-physical parameters. The report was then used as a basis for more detailed discussions during a series of national workshops held across the region in the early part of 2002. The main purpose of the reconnaissance and visioning process was to initially outline the bio-physical extent and properties of the so-called Miombo Ecoregion (in practice, a collection of smaller previously described ecoregions), to identify the main areas of potential conservation interest and to identify appropriate activities and areas for conservation action. The outline and some features of the Miombo Ecoregion (later termed the Miombo– Mopane Ecoregion by Conservation International, or the Miombo–Mopane Woodlands and Grasslands) are often mentioned (e.g. Burgess et al. 2004). However, apart from two booklets (WWF SARPO 2001, 2003), few details or justifications are publically available, although a modified outline can be found in Frost, Timberlake & Chidumayo (2002). Over the years numerous requests have been made to use and refer to the original document and maps, which had only very restricted distribution. Now, 10 years after the original draft Vision Report was produced, we are making the report more widely available as a Biodiversity Foundation for Africa (BFA) publication. Only minor corrections or additions have been made to the original document, and maps from other publications have been added in. Another BFA Publication (No. 21, Timberlake et al. 2011) presents a series of maps showing the areas of biological importance, an output from a BFA consultancy. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge the support of WWF SARPO in Harare, particularly Fortune Shonhiwa, Programme Office for the Miombo Ecoregion visioning process. The maps were mostly produced by WWF's GIS Unit. LIST OF CONTENTS page PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... 3 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Ecoregion Conservation ................................................................................................ 5 1.2 The Miombo Ecoregion ................................................................................................ 6 1.3 The Ecoregion Conservation Planning Process ............................................................ 8 1.4 Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report ................................................................................ 8 2. PHYSICAL FEATURES AND PROCESSES ..................................................................... 9 2.1 Extent and Physical Determinants................................................................................. 9 2.2 Geology ......................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Landscape Evolution................................................................................................... 13 2.4 Hydrological Processes ............................................................................................... 14 2.4.1 Rainfall Processes ......................................................................................... 14 2.4.2 Characteristics of the Plateau Surface.......................................................... 14 2.4.3 Spatial Distribution of Surface Water .......................................................... 15 2.4.4 Soil–Water Processes ................................................................................... 15 2.5 Biophysical Processes ................................................................................................. 16 3. BIOLOGICAL FEATURES AND SPECIES..................................................................... 18 3.1 Ecoregion Boundary.................................................................................................... 18 3.1.1 Inclusions and Exclusions ............................................................................ 18 3.2 Vegetation Types......................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Species......................................................................................................................... 23 3.3.1 Plants ............................................................................................................ 23 3.3.2 Mammals...................................................................................................... 23 3.3.3 Birds ............................................................................................................. 25 3.3.4 Reptiles / Amphibians .................................................................................. 25 3.3.5 Fish............................................................................................................... 26 3.3.6 Invertebrates................................................................................................. 26 3.4 Areas of Evolutionary Significance ............................................................................ 28 3.5 Areas Important for Animal Movement and Migration.............................................. 28 4. ECOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS AND PROCESSES................................................... 30 4.1 Ecological Determinants ............................................................................................. 30 4.2 Biophysical Processes ................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Plant Biomass and Herbivory...................................................................................... 31 4.4 Carbon Storage and Sequestration .............................................................................. 31 4.5 Nutrient Cycling.......................................................................................................... 32 4.6 Fire .............................................................................................................................. 32 4.7 Human Interactions ..................................................................................................... 33 5. SOCIO-ECONOMIC FEATURES AND PROCESSES .................................................... 34 5.1 Socio-Economic Context............................................................................................. 34 5.2 Key Socio-Economic Features and Processes............................................................. 34 5.2.1 Socio-Political Factors .................................................................................. 34 5.2.3 Cultural Processes ........................................................................................ 35 5.2.4 Land Use and Socio-Economic Development ............................................. 35 5.3 Economic and Policy Environment............................................................................. 39 5.3.1 Socio-economic Threats and Opportunities ................................................. 39 5.3.2 Cross-cutting Factors.................................................................................... 40 5.3.3 Threats.......................................................................................................... 40 5.3.4 Opportunities................................................................................................ 42 6. CONSERVATION VISION AND AREAS OF BIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE............. 44 6.1 Vision Statement ......................................................................................................... 44 6.1.1 Rationale........................................................................................................ 44 6.2 Areas of Importance for Biodiversity Conservation ................................................... 45 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES ........................................................................... 64 Appendix 1. List of endemic or near-endemic vertebrate taxa in the Miombo Ecoregion. ..... 69 Appendix 2. Miombo Ecoregion habitats ................................................................................ 77 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1. The Miombo Ecoregion and southern Africa ........................................................... 7 Figure 2. Southern Africa – physiography and altitude .......................................................... 10 Figure 3. Miombo