14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists and greenheads are now asking that a remote rainforest on Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique be declared a protected area without delay. The end goal is to keep the ecosystems in this region safe from loggers.
Interestingly enough, researchers have only recently become aware of this remote rainforest's existence. Thus, up until 2005, the forest was only known to local communities.
The Guardian details that the rainforest was found in said year with the help of Google Earth. More precisely, satellite images are to thank for the discovery of this highly biodiverse area.
Shortly after the rainforest was discovered, it became quite obvious that it housed many never-before-seen and fairly quirky plant and animal species. It is precisely because of its biodiversity that specialists wish to see it declared a protected area.
Julian Bayliss, i.e. a conservation scientist with Kew Gardens, has already identified a unique species of golden-eyed bush viper whose scales are bronze-edged. Together with his colleagues, the scientist is now working on describing two other snake species.
A new species of chameleon has also been found in this rainforest, and researchers are now busy documenting the particularities of another.
“The finding of the new species was really creating an evidence base to justify its protection, and now we've got enough to declare a site of extreme biological importance that needs to be a protected area and needs to be managed for conservation,” researcher Julian Bayliss explains.
“The people who threaten Mabu are already there, and really what we're trying to do now is a race against time towards its conservation. It's getting there early enough to get the wheels in motion to make it a protected area before it's too late,” he adds.
The scientists now looking to list this area as a protected one have thus far submitted an application asking that high officials in Mozambique recognize its importance.
The country's government is now expected to decide whether or not it will sign the application and grant legal protection to the region.