Conservation planning in Maputaland

Objectives

This project seeks to address these problems by producing the necessary ecological and socio-economic data, developing user-friendly conservation planning software and working with the stakeholders to set biodiversity targets and identify optimal land-use systems. This project also seeks to build institutional capacity, both by providing outside help and by strengthening links between the three nations, and will produce a suite of planning tools for use in other developing countries

• To produce a conservation planning system for Maputaland that includes ecological, socio-economic and land-use data, together with a conservation land-use plan based on input from all relevant stakeholders in the three Maputaland nation states.

• To develop CLUZ, a freely available user-friendly interface for the MARXAN conservation planning software and an associated manual and tutorial for use by conservation practitioners.

• To train one Mozambican and one South African national to Masters level by undertaking the MSc in Conservation Biology at DICE.

• To produce training materials to allow conservation planning and the use of CLUZ and MARXAN to be taught by lecturers as part of relevant BSc and vocational courses in southern Africa.

• To further develop and support links between conservation stakeholders in Maputaland, allowing the transfer of skills and expertise and ensuring the long-term viability of the planning system.