Mozambique has 34 million hectares (ha) of natural forests, covering 43 percent of its area. The predominant forest ecosystem is the miombo, covering about two thirds of the total forest area. Other forest ecosystems include internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots, such as the coastal forests in the south, afro-montane forests in central Mozambique, and coastal dry forests in the north; and the second-largest area of mangroves in Africa. Forests are an important contributor to the country's economy and a source of employment, income, and livelihoods in Mozambique's rural areas. The sector contributed about USD 330 million to GDP in 2011 and directly employed 22,000 people (FAOSTAT, 2011). Forests provide goods and services to local communities, including food, energy, medicine, construction materials and furniture. In some rural communities, miombo woodlands contribute almost 20 percent of household cash income and 40 percent of subsistence (non-cash) income. Forests provide ecosystem services of both local and global value. These include climate regulation through carbon sequestration and storage, watershed protection through soil erosion control, water quality and quantity provision, as well as habitat for globally important species, such as Africa's iconic large mammals and unique endemic species, such as the Gorongosa Pygmy Chameleon and Vincent's Bush Squirrel. Based on the recent National Forest Inventory (NFI, 2018), the country's above- and below-ground carbon stock totals more than 5.2 billion tCO2. This carbon store is central to the country's climate change mitigation commitments. Promoting sustainable forest management in Mozambique requires significant financing, as it entails changing the land use behavior of millions of smallholders and creating incentives among national stakeholders to manage forests sustainably, as opposed to extracting the most from them in the short-term. Mozambique has developed a Forest Investment Plan that identifies how resources would be used. Further resource mobilization is needed to scale it up and replicate it in other landscapes
