Sky Island of Namuli in Mozambique
In 2014, Legado brought together local community advocates, world-renowned scientists, Mozambican conservation leaders, and an international climbing team to begin working with Namuli’s Lomwe communities in securing a Thriving Future for Namuli and the people who depend on it.
As our inaugural program, our work with local Mozambican community members and partner organizations has shaped our philosophy of legacy and our transformative approach to development.
Mount Namuli is a sky island that rises sharply out of the plains. Because it is not attached to a mountain chain, Mount Namuli provides habitat to some of the most unique species of flora and fauna in the world.
Biologists and conservationists from around the world have identified Mount Namuli as a global conservation priority. It is designated as an Important Bird Area, an Important Plant Area, and an Alliance for Zero Extinction site.
The enigmatic Namuli Apalis is a bird that you will only find on Mount Namuli | © Ross Gallardy
In 2014, Legado began its first programs on Mount Namuli, which is also the ancestral home to over 24,000 Lomwe Indigenous people, for whom the mountain holds significant cultural, social, and economic influence in the lives of millions of people in Mozambique. Together with the Mozambican conservation organization LUPA, we became the first group to work with Namuli communities to create a vision for their future and the future of their mountain and its resources.
Today, our Legado: Namuli team champion a community-first approach to conservation and development. We support complementary programming in partnership with Namuli communities to achieve their goals for their mountain and their lives.
360° Community-Led Change
Working in collaboration with Legado and our partners, people from Mount Namuli's Mucunha community and Murrabue community have worked to create Legacy Plans to articulate their vision for their landscape and their well-being.
Every community member, including women and youth, played a critical role in defining their legacies and the priorities that would help build their Thriving Futures.
Community members established the following goals for themselves, their families, their communities, and the environment.
Mucunha Natural Resource Management Committee | Legado
As a result of this work and other community planning*, we have seen:
- 100% of the eight focal communities become titled, and 4,841 individuals now holding titles to their family lands (with 69% of these titles issued in a woman’s name). Prior to this work, no communities or families held formal land titles.
- New sustainable agricultural practices adopted—resulting in increased yields, diversified production, and improved food security.
- New value chains created so farmers now have greater market access for their products.
- The advancement of the protection of Mount Namuli.
(*Supported in partnership with Nitidae and Namuli Wiwinana)
Building on their success, Mucunha and Murrabue’s next priorities are:
Mucunha’s priorities:
Strengthen Financial Resilience and Livelihoods
- Expand savings groups to help reduce our dependence on forest exploitation by building new income streams.
Adopt small-scale agriculture with improved seed varieties for higher yields in smaller spaces.
- Invest in local market stalls, enabling the sale of produce and local goods.
Improve Access to Health Care
- Coordinate closely with the Ministry of Health by providing transport for Ministry technicians to attend scheduled field visits.
- Ensure the continued delivery of mobile health services, even in the absence of formal deployment. Mobile brigades will increase coverage of vaccination, maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV/TB screening, chronic disease management, and will provide preventive care (health education, hygiene awareness). Mobile brigades will also strengthen the relationships between health service providers and communities through direct, personal contact.
Increase land restoration and stewardship practices
Expand the local community nursery to help increase the propagation of native medicinal plants, reviving traditional practices and biodiversity, which contributes to economic, ecological, and cultural resilience.
- Cultivate a diverse range of indigenous species vital for the recovery of degraded landscapes and long-term ecosystem health.
Murrabue’s priorities:
Improve Our Children’s Education
- Advocate to add 8th through 10th classes for older students to continue their education locally
- Improve access to the school by constructing bridges over the Malema and Neli rivers, as well as clearing access paths
Support our Community Health
- Grow our community healthcare worker force
- Increase support for our community health workers and improve their workplaces
Create Stronger Livelihoods
- Rehabilitate the Muyarana Road
Improve our access
- Rehabilitate the Muyarana Road
Preserve and maintain our forests
- Improve forest conservation so our community can maintain its livelihoods now and for future generations
Creating Thriving Futures
The Legado:Namuli team works with six communities and 24,000 people on Mount Namuli to realize the legacies they have defined. See them come to action below:
NAMULI COMMUNITIES LANDMARK TITLES OVER ANCESTRAL LAND
A project to improve the implementation of Mozambique's well-established laws on tenure came to completion in December 2021, with the major milestone of titling 100% of community land. Read more in the excerpt from the Tenure Facility, who supported the work, on the page on the left.
Reforesting Mount Namuli to Protect Traditional Medicinal Plants
On the hills surrounding Mount Namuli grow dozens of species used in Lomwe traditional medicine. However, over the past few decades, deforestation has threatened the places these medicinal plants grow.
Learn more about how the communities around Mount Namuli are advancing their intersecting priorities to support community health and their forest landscape here.
O NOSSO LEGADO É NAMULI
O Nosso Legado é Namuli (Our Legacy is Namuli), is a four-minute film created by the Namuli communities, Legado, and Nitiade in 2022. The film, made by Tanzania filmmaker Roshni Lodhia and featuring original music, showcases the power of Namuli’s Lomwe people and their mountain home, which serves as a resource to the world.
The film is narrated by local leader Fáusia José and also features the story of Inácio Josefe Napalacué, who lives out his legacy on Namuli through beekeeping.
NAMULI: THE FILM
Legado began with a pioneering expedition combining climbing, science, and conservation on Mount Namuli. This community-backed film from 2016 tells the story of our unconventional roots and celebrates what happens when a team of rock climbers, biologists, and conservationists sets off on an unconventional expedition into one of the world’s least explored and most threatened habitats.
Watch the trailer above or the full 25-minute, internationally acclaimed documentary now.
EXPLORE NAMULI TODAY
In 2019 we teamed up with Google Jump and filmmaker Ross Henry to create a three-minute Virtual Reality film, Mountains = Water = Life, to take you right to the heart of the mountain. Mountains = Water = Life tells the story about the power of one mountain and its water by tracking water from the rainforests on top of Mount Namuli on its journey to the Indian Ocean—200 miles away. Need another reason to check it out? It’s narrated by the Queen of Namuli herself.
Check the film out in English above, or see the film in Portuguese here.
