‘Sky Island’ Secret Rainforest Saved by New Discoveries

Situated on a remote mountaintop and surrounded by plains, Mabu is known as the “sky island” and is the largest rainforest in southern Africa. BBC environmental correspondent Jonah Fisher went to Mabu with a team of scientists who discovered dozens of new species there, helping to convince Mozambique to protect it.

“Let me get my magic spoon,” says Dr. Gimo Daniel with a smile.

It is difficult to imagine anyone who feels more satisfied with their work than the 36-year-old Mozambican beetle specialist.

We are crouched around a small hole in the ground, not far from our camp, in the center of the Mabu forest. Dr. Daniel’s mission, like that of almost everyone on our expedition, is to find things that science has never seen before.

Dung beetles are Dr. Daniel’s specialty and he laughs as he pulls out a large plastic container of bait – his own feces.

The smell is what you would expect. Poignant and impossible to ignore.

Dr. Daniel told me that he has already discovered what he believes are 15 new species of dung beetles.

“They can smell it up to 50 meters away, so they come as quickly as they can,” he says. “It’s brunch.”

Twenty years ago, Mabu was a secret to everyone but the locals.

It was “discovered” to the outside world by Prof Julian Bayliss in 2004. An explorer and ecologist now living in north Wales, he was researching satellite images of northern Mozambique when he came across a previously unknown dark green patch.

A first expedition the following year confirmed that although locals had hunted in the forest, it was in incredibly good condition and its size of 75 square kilometers made Mabu the largest single block of rainforest in Southern Africa.

“I was like – oh my God – this is phenomenal,” recalls Professor Bayliss.

In the first expeditions to Mabu, one of which I took part in 2009 while working as a BBC correspondent in Southern Africa, Prof Bayliss was at the forefront of a “gold rush” of discoveries, quickly finding several new species of chameleons, snakes and butterflies .

In total, Professor Bayliss says he has found at least 25 new species, not counting dung beetles, many of which have yet to be officially recognized.

What makes Mabu so special is its geography. Being a mid-altitude tropical forest, which juts out above the lowlands of Mozambique, it effectively makes it an “island in the sky”.

This means that most of the animals and insects that live there have no way of meeting and procreating with other populations, increasing the chances of evolving in isolation into something unique and new to science.

The expedition that the BBC joined this year at the invitation of Prof Bayliss was the first time that a team of scientists had set up shop right in the heart of the forest.

Mabu was partially protected by Mozambique’s long history of civil war, the longest of which ended in 1992. It was also helped by the fact that it was so difficult to get there.

After driving five hours over dirt roads, all the camping equipment, food and gear are loaded on the backs and heads of over sixty porters.

While we and the scientists adjusted our hiking boots and poured hydration salts into our water bottles, the porters, many of them wearing only flip-flops, marched up the steep slopes of Mount Mabu.

One of the first to discover something new was Erica Tovela, a freshwater fish specialist at the Natural History Museum of Mozambique. In the stream that runs through the camp she catches a type of small catfish that she has never seen before.

“I hope we have a new species for this area,” she says with a smile as she holds a clear bag full of dead fish. (They will be preserved in formaldehyde for later analysis and comparison with other similar species.) “Amazing. It will be the first new species for me.”

The process of definitively identifying a new species can take years. It involves writing a peer-reviewed article in a journal in which the differences between the new discovery and its closest relatives are outlined and accepted by other scientists.

The next step for Tovela is to analyze the DNA of his fish and circulate detailed descriptions and images. And what could the name be?

“It must be something mabuensis,” she says. “It’s a good way of saying we have a specific species that comes from Mabu.”

The Mabu forest is in good condition, but that doesn’t mean some things haven’t changed.

The large mammals that once inhabited the country, such as lions, rhinos and buffalo, were all hunted, probably for food during the war. Deforestation has also taken its toll, although not as much as other forests in Southern Africa.

“It is very visible that the forests (in Southern Africa) where I was just 15 or 20 years ago are gone, cut down for many different reasons,” says Prof. Ara Monadjem, a small mammal expert at the University of Eswatini. , who was on the trip.

In Mabu, deforestation has so far been limited, but locals are certainly hunting. Camera traps show hunters carrying animals they have captured and we see physical traps made from car springs placed near tracks in the forest.

But at the same time, smaller mammal species are also being discovered. They included a horseshoe bat called Rhinolophus mabuensis and a dwarf musk shrew that scientists are still naming and describing.

Not everyone on the expedition is looking for new species. Bird experts Claire Spottiswoode and Callan Cohen have a very specific mission. To find proof that one of Africa’s rarest birds is still alive.

O Apalis of Namuli It only lives at altitude and there are fears that a combination of the destruction of forests elsewhere and rising temperatures is pushing the small yellow and black bird towards extinction.

“Climate change often has effects that are difficult to predict,” explains Callan Cohen, noting that sometimes higher temperatures encourage snake activity, meaning more nests and young are attacked.

Trying to find the rare bird involves playing a recording of a Apalis of Namuli through a Bluetooth speaker and waiting to see if one responds.

There is no sign or sound the day we join the search, but several days later the bird experts return to camp late at night bringing with them good news.

They managed to record the sound of the Namuli Apalis on one of the highest peaks.

“To be honest, it’s still a little worrying,” says Dr. Cohen of the enormous effort required.

So what happens next? For Mabu, at least the signs seem positive.

Pejul Calenga, the director general of conservation areas in Mozambique, told me in an interview that Mabu will be transformed into a community protected area.

This will mean that no logging or mining will be permitted, but that local people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods will manage and use it.

Regarding the role played by the work of scientists in protecting the area, he says: “It is much easier to defend areas in which we have unique resources present.”

Mr Calenga said that Mabu is now part of the Mozambique’s commitment to a global biodiversity pledge to protect 30 percent of its land by 2030.

Having led so many expeditions to the Mabu forest, Prof. Bayliss is cautiously optimistic that, if the management plan is executed well, Mabu will become a conservation success story.

He is already looking for other places in Africa that need protection.