Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

(in the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

ecoregions (listed below) characterized by the dominant presence of '' Brachystegia'' and '' Julbernardia'' genera of trees, and has a range of climates ranging from humid to semi-arid, and tropical to subtropical or even temperate. The trees characteristically shed their leaves for a short period in the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

to reduce water loss and produce a flush of new leaves just before the onset of the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

with rich gold and red colours masking the underlying

chlorophyll Chlorophyll is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words (, "pale green") and (, "leaf"). Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy ...

, reminiscent of

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

colours in the temperate zone. Miombo woodlands extend across south-central Africa, running from

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

in the west to

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

in the east, including parts of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They are bounded on the north by the humid Congolian forests, on the northeast by Acacia–Commiphora bushland, and on the south by semi-arid woodlands, grasslands, and savannas.Ribeiro, N.S., Silva de Miranda, P., Timberlake, J. (2020). Biogeography and Ecology of Miombo Woodlands. In: Ribeiro, N.S., Katerere, Y., Chirwa, P.W., Grundy, I.M. (eds) ''Miombo Woodlands in a Changing Environment: Securing the Resilience and Sustainability of People and Woodlands''. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50104-4_2 The woodland gets its name from ''miombo'' (plural, singular ''muombo''), the Bemba word for ''Brachystegia'' species. Other

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...

of the region, such as Swahili and Shona, have related if not identical words, such as Swahili ''miyombo'' (singular ''myombo''). These woodlands are dominated by trees of subfamily Detarioideae, particularly miombo (''Brachystegia''), '' Julbernardia'' and '' Isoberlinia'', which are rarely found outside miombo woodlands. Miombo woodlands can be classified as dry or wet based on the per annum amount and distribution of rainfall. Dry woodlands occur in those areas receiving less than 1000 mm annual rainfall, mostly in Zimbabwe, central Tanzania, eastern and southern Mozambique, Malawi, and southern Zambia. Wet woodlands are those receiving more than 1000 mm annual rainfall, mainly located in northern Zambia, eastern Angola, central Malawi, and western Tanzania. Wet miombo generally has a taller canopy (15 metres or more), more tree cover (60% or more ground cover), and greater species diversity than dry miombo.

Ecoregions

Three ecoregions are currently recognized.Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545

/ref> * Angolan wet miombo woodlands –

* Central Zambezian wet miombo woodlands – Angola,

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

* Dry miombo woodlands – southeastern Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, central and southern Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dry miombo woodlands ecoregion includes the Eastern miombo woodlands and

Southern miombo woodlands The Southern miombo woodlands is a tropical grasslands and woodlands ecoregion extending across portions of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is one of four miombo woodlands ecoregions that span the African continent south of the Co ...

ecoregions previously delineated by the

.Martin, Emma and Neil Burgess
Dry Miombo Woodlands
One Earth. Retrieved 14 June 2024.

Flora and fauna

Despite the relatively nutrient-poor soil, long dry season, and low rainfall in some areas, the woodland is home to many species, including several

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

bird species. The predominant tree is miombo ('' Brachystegia'' spp.). It also provides food and cover for mammals such as the

African elephant African elephants are members of the genus ''Loxodonta'' comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (''L. africana'') and the smaller African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. ...

(''Loxodonta africana''), African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), sable antelope (''Hippotragus niger'') and Lichtenstein's hartebeest (''Sigmoceros lichtensteinii'').Campbell

People

The miombo woodlands are important to the livelihoods of many rural people who depend on the resources available from the woodland. The wide variety of species provides non-timber products such as fruits, honey, mushrooms, fodder for livestock and fuelwood to various different largely

Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native Demographics of Africa, African List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The language ...

such as the

Bemba people The Bemba belong to a large group of Bantu peoples, primarily in the Northern Province, Zambia, Northern, Luapula Province, Luapula, Muchinga Province, Muchinga and the northern Central Province, Zambia, Central Province of Zambia. The Bemba e ...

Lozi people The Lozi people, also known as Balozi, are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. They have significant populations in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The Lozi language, Silozi, is used as the formal language in e ...

, Yao people, Luvale people, Shona people, and Luba people.

Notes

References

*Campbell, Bruce M., ed. 1996. ''The Miombo Transition: Woodlands & Welfare in Africa'', CIFOR,

External links

*
Earthtrends.wri.org: Map of Miombo forests-grasslands-drylands
{{Authority control Ecoregions of Africa Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Grasslands of Africa Ecoregions of Angola Ecoregions of Burundi Ecoregions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Ecoregions of Malawi Ecoregions of Mozambique Ecoregions of Tanzania Ecoregions of Zambia Ecoregions of Zimbabwe Swahili words and phrases Biota of the Afrotropical realm Afrotropical ecoregions Zambezian region