Experiments on degraded ecosystems and associated resources’ rehabilitation
- Mozambique
Rehabilitation experiments on degraded ecosystems were planned to be performed in both seagrass meadows and mangrove forests. It is envisaged that local communities be fully engaged in this process, that knowledge transfer be effective and provide local communities with technical know-how to perform rehabilitation. This process is closely linked to the activities related to community awareness. The project successfully initiated the planned experiments both in Príncipe and Mozambique, and local communities were effectively engaged.
Seagrasses
Experiments on rehabilitating seagrass meadows started early on the project time-frame in Mozambique. These systems suffer massive degradation in peri-urban areas of Maputo, due the activities of extraction of sediment resources by local communities. The study targets two main locations – Costa do Sol near Maputo and Inhaca Island – as well as testing different seagrass species with alternative methodologies.
The species tested were Zostera capensis, Halodule uninervis and Cymodocea serrulata. Methodologies used were based on the plug and sod methods. Different spatial schemes for the design of the experiments are under trial. Regarding plugs, the experiments focus on collecting core plugs (4.5 and 7.5cm diameter) from healthy beds and subsequent transplanting into degraded areas previously identified.
Aspects of the replantation process at Inhaca Island. (A) A healthy Thallassia hemprichii meadow at Sangala bank, Inhaca Island; (B) a general view of a Zostera capensis replantation plot; (C-D) detail of replantation with spatial pattern 1, and (E-F) spatial pattern 2.
Aspects of the replantation process at Inhaca Island. (A-B) Replanting using the plug method; (C) the sod method; (D-E) detail of seagrass plugs.