Africa’s Largest Dry Woodland Is the Size of Mexico

Africa’s largest dry woodland covers an area comparable to Mexico, making it one of the most significant ecosystems on the continent. Rich in biodiversity, it supports diverse wildlife and plays a crucial role in environmental conservation. This vast woodland is essential for maintaining ecological balance, combating climate change, and preserving natural habitats for future generations.

As early as our school days, most of us learned that the Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. However, there is another vast forest in Africa, about the size of Mexico, that is covered with tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands. The Miombo forest, which is the largest dry woodland, is likely something we’ve never heard of.

Covering approximately 1.9 million square kilometers, the forest spans parts of Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Between October and December, the Miombo forest becomes the world’s largest mammal migration spot, with about 10 million bats traveling from different parts of Africa to settle in Kasanka National Park within Zambia’s Miombo woodland.

The Miombo forest is also home to some of Africa's most iconic megafauna and endangered elephant species. It provides crucial resources and livelihoods for over 300 million people.

Between 1980 and 2020, the forest lost nearly a third of its cover. Protecting the Miombo forest is essential because its deforestation could release significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and exacerbate climate change. Until now, it has helped slow down global warming.

The Miombo woodlands are a distinct type of semi-deciduous forest, mainly consisting of trees from the legume family. Spanning across Central and Southern Africa, this ecoregion is the largest dry tropical forest in the world. In Mozambique’s Niassa Special Reserve, one of Africa's largest protected areas, the Miombo woodlands thrive alongside other diverse habitats, such as rocky outcrops and seasonally flooded grassy areas known as dambos.

These forests provide essential resources, including thatching grass for roofing, poles for fencing and construction, bark for fiber production, nutrient-rich soil from termite mounds for agriculture, and firewood for cooking.

A recent study revealed that the Miombo forest stores more than twice the carbon dioxide in its soils and trees than previously thought, according to CNN.

The Miombo forest holds an additional 3.7 billion metric tons of carbon, which is more than the total carbon released by China in 2023.

This extra carbon storage in the forest is beneficial in combating climate change by preventing excess carbon from entering the atmosphere.

Edwin Tambara, director of Global Leadership at the African Wildlife Foundation, states that dry forests like the Miombo are often undervalued, understudied, and overlooked compared to rainforests such as the Amazon and the Congo Basin.

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Source: NDTV‍