Mount Moco (Portuguese: ), at , is the highest mountain in

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 ...

. It is located in

Huambo Province Huambo is a Provinces of Angola, province of Angola. With an area of 34,270 km2, it is one of the geographically smaller provinces, situated in the Central Region approximately 450 km south east of the capital, Luanda. The province had ...

in the western part of the country, west of the city of

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English language, English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous List of cities and towns in Angola, city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a pop ...

.''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition'', p. 754. Mount Moco was named one of Angola's "seven wonders" in 2014. The mountain is a destination for birdwatchers, hikers, and people participating in rappelling and paragliding.

Flora and fauna

The mountain's

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions o ...

forests are part of the

Angolan montane forest-grassland mosaic Angolan may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Angola *Angolan people; see Demographics of Angola *Angolan culture *Angolar Creole *Something of, from, or related to the historical Bantu Kingdom of Ndongo *A resident of: **Angola, New Y ...

bioregion.

Flora

Mount Moco is largely under-researched and has been visited by very few botanical surveyors. It is known to have several species of ''

Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family. About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...

'' and other flowering plants, many of which appear in July through September after grassland fires have settled.

Birdlife

Mount Moco is home to many birds, with around 233 species recorded at the site. It has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

and is part of the Western Angola

Endemic Bird Area An Endemic Bird Area (EBA) is an area of land identified by BirdLife International as being important for habitat-based bird conservation because it contains the habitats of restricted-range bird species (''see below for definition''), which are th ...

. The mountain provides a home for a number of endangered and threatened bird species including the Swiersta's Francolin ('' Pternistis swierstrai''), Angola Cave Chat ('' Xenocopsychus ansorgei''), Angola Slaty Flycatcher ('' Dioptrornis brunneus'') and Ludwig's Double-collared Sunbird ('' Cinnyris ludovicensis'').

Conservation

Mount Moco is a particularly threatened habitat due to unsustainable wood collection for construction-based logging and for firewood. Uncontrolled bush fires are also an environmental threat. Though a Mount Moco Special Reserve has been proposed, the area currently has no protection status or measures in place. The forest continues to be at risk from the local residents of the village of Kanjonde, which sits at the foot of Mount Moco. As they depend primarily on subsistence farming, the villagers frequently burn vegetation and fell trees to make way for food cultivation in the mountain's valleys. Kanjonde has no electricity, so the residents also depend on wood fuel for cooking. The Mount Moco Project is a charitable foundation working to gain protection status for Mount Moco and to educate the Kanjonde villagers about more sustainable practices. The Project began a native tree nursery in July 2010 at Kanjonde, and this nursery was expanded in 2012 with permission of the village's ''soba'' (chief), Amândio Cabo.

Notes

References

* ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition''. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1997. .

External links

* {{Highest points of Africa Mountains of Angola Highest points of countries