The Gorongosa region can be divided into five regions namely the Gorongosa Mountain, Gorongosa Plateau or midland, the Urema Trough, Cheringoma Plateau or Cuesta and the Cheringoma Coast . Gorongosa National Park , lies astride this Rift Valley, whose floor is between thirty-five and forty kilometres wide within the Park and whose altitude ranges between 12 and 80 metres above the sea level. It is bisected by the Urema Trough, which is the southern end of the Great Rift Valley system of east Africa .

To the west of the Urema Trough, is a dissected plateau, ranging from 100 to 500 metres and forming a rolling terrain, extending westwards to the Mozambique and Zimbabwe Frontier Mountain escarpment. To the west of these plateaux, 21 km of the Urema Trough is the granite inselberg, which forms the Gorongosa Mountain . 

The Gorongosa Mountain is an isolated oval massif about 30-Km long and 20 Km wide, rising to a height of 1863 metres at GoGoGo peak. With a high relief rainfall regime, the mountain forms the centre of a radial pattern of perennial streams. The Gorongosa National Park receives drainage from both sides of the Rift Valley and from three of the four main streams radiating off the mountain. This centripetal drainage pattern culminates in the Urema Lake basin in the centre of the park. 

Forming the Eastern edge of the Urema Trough is the inclined plateau (or Cuesta) of the Cheringoma Plateau which rises to 394 m at its scarp crest near Inhaminga Town . The scarp slopes facing the rift valley are steep and the area heavily eroded and dissected. To the east of the Cheringoma plateaux, the gradient is gently sloping to the coastal planes were an out-wash plain of sand fans has been created along the coast merging with the Zambezi Delta. 

In the North of the region, the Zambezi River crosses the Urema Trough at a right angle, 150-km inland of its Delta on the Indian Ocean coast. The Marromeu Buffalo Reserve, forms part of the southern half of the delta flood plains. The coastal margins of the Delta are bordered by broad areas of mangrove forests lining their inlets and separated by belts of sand coastline. 

To the west of the Urema Trough lies the western plateau - the Gorongosa plateau that forms the intermediate range between the Mountain and the Urema Trough. North of the Urema Lake , the Muche River , which is seasonal, drains towards the Zambezi River and is separated from the Urema Lake catchment by a low divide. On the gentle eastern slope of the Cheringoma Plateau, perennial and seasonal streams drain into the Marromeu Delta flood plain and to the coast between the Delta and Plunge river mouth at Beira . [iv]

Vegetation

The vegetation distribution in the region is described in a document prepared by the National Directorate of Nature Conservation: “The region has 43 vegetation types which can be grouped into 7 major types; Open Mountain Grassland, Miombo Woodland, Savannah Woodland, Grasslands, Riverine Vegetation, Mangrove and Coastal Dune Vegetation. These include;

Gorongosa Mountain 

Open Mountain Grassland occurs on the summit, associated with marshy drainage lines in places. Granite outcrops on the summit are surrounded by thicket and short mountain forest, which merges with the more extensive tropical rain forest on the slope. Savannah woodlands occur on the lower slopes of the mountain. As an Isolated inselberg, Gorongosa Mountain has many plants, which are unique to the region.

Gorongosa Plateau

The plateau is largely covered by savannah woodlands of the”Hill Miombo” type, which form a closed canopy savannah. Glades or patches of open grassland are also encountered in this region. 

Urema Trough 

Dry forest is found on the sandy areas of old river beds and alluvial fans, while tall tree savannah with different dominant species are found on sandy clays and loam. Grasses are tall to medium height perennials. The floodplain consists of short, open short grasslands, especially on southern and north-western plains around the Urema Lake . In the areas with abundant large termite hills, are covered by tree or bush thickets forming islands in the area of open grassland or savannah cover. 

The Cheringoma Plateau or Cuesta 

The steep, westward slopes are covered by Miombo woodlands with dry forest and thicket along the lines of numerous riverine and tall ravine forest trees growing along the ravine floors. To the east of the escarpment, on the gently undulating deep slopes, miombo woodland is interspersed with water logged drainage line grasslands or dambos. Were the dambos are incised; their banks support gallery forests or swamp forests in areas of poor drainage. On lower areas near the coast, thickets of heath are found.”[v] 

Bio-geographic Composition

The Gorongosa region in which the National Party is located is biogeographically diverse. The region is situated where the Great Rift Valley System meets the humid Indian Ocean coast and is bisected by the arid Zambezi River valley. Some of the biographic components of the region which are found in the National Park and its surrounding area include: 

• Dry forest on sand i.e. along the river in the National Park.
• Orographic rainforest on isolated mountains i.e. Gorongosa Mountain .
• Afromontane heath, grassland and forest.
• Endemic component of the mountain and Rift Valley dry forests and the moisture forest; thicket formation.
• Hydrophilous formations (mountains and coastal bogs, flood-plain grassland sedge swamp, swamp-forest.
• Rock-face biotic communities. 
• Fauna in the region 

The region is home to an impressive variety of wildlife, widespread poaching and organised killing of larger bovines during the civil war devastated local populations of animal but left bird species largely untouched. Game counts in the National Park point to a gradual rehabilitation however some species remain below the critical figures needed for natural regeneration of herds. Of particular concern is the Gorongosa Mountain which is home to various endemic species and other rare mountain forest birds as mashamba clearing on the slopes encroaches on their habitat. As the mountain falls outside the boundaries of the National Park, legitimate concerns for the long term viability of this unique habitat exist.

The government report states that “The miombo woodlands of the Gorongosa plateau also have a wide variety of birds, as well been the prime habitat for Sable and Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest among other ungulates. The Rift Valley, apart from a variety from different birds some of which of international significance like the Wattle Crane, used to support large numbers of Buffaloes, wildebeest, hippo, elephant, zebra, lion, waterbuck, sable, eland reedbuck impala, kudu, nyala, bushbuck, oribi, duikers and suni. Although hunting for ivory and meat has decimated most of these herds by various armed groups between 1983 to 1995, positive recovering of most of the species has been observed lately (Zolho and Dutton, 1997)”. Recent game counts demonstrate a gradual recovery of most species.

“An aerial survey in 1996 indicated that although the wildlife had been decimated by hungry soldiers and rebels, all previously occurring wildlife is still found but in very small numbers. These include several small herds of elephant, a few lion, impala, warthog and several other species of birdlife. However it is the variety and beauty of the habitat and the birds it supports which is the real attraction.”

” The birdlife was largely unscathed by the war and Gorongosa is home to some 500 species including several species endemic to the Gorongosa area only - the green-headed oriole, blue-throated sunbird, chestnut fronted Helmut shrike, blackcap tchagras, Livingstone's Flycatcher, Mozambique batis, Vanga Flycatcher, singing cisticola, black headed apalis, red-winged warbler, moustached warbler, Eastern saw-wing swallow, mascarene martin, Nyasa seed-cracker, olive-headed weaver, white-breasted alethe, green tinker barbet, Bohm's bee-eater and sooty-tern.”

”Other notable sightings may include the rare African hobby, eastern red-footed falcon, collared palm-thrush, several raptors, herons, flamingos and a many species of crakes in the ephemeral ponds on the road verges. The water birds are located particularly along the edges of the Pungwe River .”

Forest Cover

Government surveys indicate that the Gorongosa region has a whole has approximately 2.2 million hectares (31 per cent) classified timber productive forests, 2.8 million hectares (39 per cent) of lower woody vegetation and an area of 125000 hectares (1.7 per cent) of mangroves.

Surveys of the forest resources have found that historically the forests have been relatively protected from agricultural encroachment. “During the colonial period, this region has been the main supply area of high quality timber of valuable species such as Millettia stuhlmannii, Pterocarpus angolensis, Afzelia quanzensis and Erythrophioeum suaveolens etc. As in many parts of the country, Brachystegia sp. is the dominant tree species in most of the forest in the region. The preliminary data from the ongoing forest inventory, being undertaken by GERFFA/DNFFB gives the impression that Brachystegia sp. has been saved from exploitation in the past, since the study area seems to be overstocked by timber of that specie. Still visible stamps mainly from Millettia stuhlmannii, Pterocarpus angolensis, Afzelia quanzensis which have been widely exploited before. “[ix] This situation is rapidly changing as demining and repairs to the infrastructure take place opening up new areas for exploitation.

The studies have also pointed to a rehabilitation of the resources during the civil war which lasted about 10 years (1984/1994). While this presents opportunities for sustainable harvesting, the return of refugees, de-mining of forest areas and the repair of infrastructure is placing enormous pressure on forest resources. Unplanned utilisation, in particular by communities involved in charcoal production and the proliferation of mashamba clearings is cause for concern. 

Envisaged project interaction with the GNP

• The project has been designed and developed in very close co-operation with the Park Director and his staff. The project implementation will bring added value to existing strategies and initiatives taken by the Park in the past.
• Transfer of resources and skills to the park. The project intends to bring added capacity to the park and will use funds available to do this in a manner that contributes to the existing programmes in the park and addresses problem areas, particularly the shortage of resources.
• Funding for conservation and habitat restoration in the Buffer Zone and in the Park. This is a key component of the project and one which will be built on as the project expands and additional purchases of carbon offsets take place.
• Contribute to “human fence” as part of macro strategy for the Park. The park management have embarked on an ambitious and farsighted strategy to address problems of settlement in the park and unregulated exploitation of resources.
• Bring publicity to the rehabilitation of the Park. This project could bring much needed publicity to the severely under-resourced programme to rehabilitate the park. The project will highlight key issues and strategies which affect all national parks in developing countries.