The Mueda Plateau, also known as the Maconde Plateau, is a plateau in

Cabo Delgado Province Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). It borders the Mtwara Region in the neighbouring country of Tanzania, and the provinces of Nampula and Niassa. The Province is ri ...

of northeastern

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Geography

The Mueda Plateau lies between the

Ruvuma River Ruvuma River, formerly also known as the Rovuma River, is a river in the African Great Lakes region. During the greater part of its course, it forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. The river is long, with a drainage basin of ~ in si ...

on the north, which forms the border with

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 ...

, and the Messalo River on the south. It is named for the town of Mueda, the principal town on the plateau. The highest portion of the plateau reaches above 1000 meters elevation.Programa de investimento em extensao agrarian/Documento de trabalho no. 2/B 1^a versao-15 de Junho de 1996 (DNER, 1996) The western edge of the plateau forms a steep escarpment, dropping to rolling plains. The plateau has an area of 1715 square kilometers.Kingdon, Zachary (2013) ''A Host of Devils: The History and Context of the Making of Makonde Spirit Sculpture''. Studies in Visual Culture, Routledge, 2013. , 9781136476662 The Macomia Plateau lies to the south, across the Messalo River. The

Makonde Plateau The Makonde Plateau, also known as the Newala Plateau, is a plateau in southeastern Tanzania. It is mostly within Mtwara Region, with the northeast corner in Lindi Region. The Makonde Plateau is a roughly rectangular, rising from the coast west ...

lies to the north, across the Ruvuma River in Tanzania. The plateau is composed of includes metamorphic and volcanic rocks.Chiziane E.A. (2019) The Design of the Political and Legal Framework on Soil Conservation in Mozambique: Deeply Unfinished. In: Ginzky H., Dooley E., Heuser I., Kasimbazi E., Markus T., Qin T. (eds) International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2018. International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy, vol 2018. Springer, Cham. The soils of the plateau are classified as

nitisol Nitisol, in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), is a deep, red, well-drained soil with a clay content of at least 30% and a polyhedral structure or a blocky structure, breaking into a polyhedral or a flat-edged structure. The soil a ...

Climate

Mueda, at an elevation of 847 meters, has an average annual rainfall of 1,093 mm, and a mean annual temperature of 21.9 °C. Most of the rainfall occurs during the October-to-April wet season.

Ecology

The Mueda Plateau is in the

Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

ecoregion. The natural vegetation is a mosaic of plant communities, including

miombo woodland Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) charac ...

, dry deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, dry deciduous thicket, and grassland. Miombo woodland is characterized by species of ''

Brachystegia ''Brachystegia'' is a genus of tree of the subfamily Detarioideae that is native to tropical Africa. Trees of the genus are commonly known as miombo, and are dominant in the miombo woodlands of central and southern tropical Africa. The Zambezia ...

'' and ''

Julbernardia ''Julbernardia'' is a genus of plants in the family Fabaceae. It includes ten species native to tropical Africa, ranging from Nigeria to Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. They are medium-sized trees. Species accepted by the Plants ...

'' which form open-canopied woodlands and savannas. Dry deciduous and semi-deciduous forests generally have a closed canopy, and trees are often dry-season deciduous and/or

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

ous. Typical dry forest species include ''

Manilkara sansibarensis ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family (biology), family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and i ...

Pteleopsis myrtifolia ''Pteleopsis'' is a genus of plant in the family Combretaceae. ''Pteleopsis'' Engl. is often considered a synonym of ''Terminalia Terminalia may refer to: * Terminalia (festival) Terminalia () was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the ...

, Warneckea sansibarica'', and '' Baphia macrocalyx''. Dry forests subjected to human disturbance from timber harvesting, livestock grazing, and shifting cultivation are often more thicket-like.Timberlake, Jonathan & Goyder, David & Chase, Frances & Burrows, John & Clarke, G. & Luke, Quentin & Matimele, Hermenegildo & Müller, Tom & Pascal, Olivier & Sousa, Camila & Alves, Tereza. (2011). Coastal dry forests in northern Mozambique. Plant Ecology and Evolution. 144. 126-137. 10.5091/plecevo.2011.539. It is estimated that 2,332 km² of the plateau was densely vegetated with woodland or forest 150 to 100 years ago. A survey of forest cover from 2002 satellite data found that only 89 km² of the plateau is still densely vegetated, a 96.2% reduction over more than a century.

People

The

Makonde people The Makonde are an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania, northern Mozambique, and Kenya. The Makonde developed their culture on the Mueda Plateau in Mozambique. At present they live throughout Tanzania and Mozambique, and have a small presence in K ...

inhabit the plateau and the adjacent lowlands. The

, which lies immediately north of the Ruvuma River in Tanzania, is also inhabited by the Makonde. The name 'Makonde' is derived from the typical woodland thickets of the plateau. The soil is light and sandy but fertile, and the Makonde people on the plateau traditionally practiced a form of

swidden agriculture Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The ...

with a three-crop rotation. Trees were cut down to stumps, which provide support for vine crops (beans, pumpkins, and cucumbers) followed by a maize crop, and then millet. At the end of the growing season, the tree stumps were allowed to re-grow for a six- to nine-year fallow period.

References

{{reflist Geography of Cabo Delgado Province Mountains of Mozambique Plateaus of Africa Southern Zanzibar–Inhambane coastal forest mosaic