Mozambique's miombo woodlands often burned again within a year
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Landsat-derived annual burned-area maps on a one-kilometer grid tracked Niassa fires from 2013 to 2024. About 69.6% of the reserve burned more than six times across that period; median fire-return intervals were approximately one year in most vegetation classes, shortest in dry lowland miombo.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
The management question is not whether an African woodland has fire, but which patch mosaics, vegetation types and recovery periods it experiences. Frequent reburning and rare refugia need to be mapped before imposing a uniform burn interval.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Remote-sensing resolution and fire-detection choices shape reconstructed intervals. Fire frequency alone does not establish ecological damage or prescribe a universal suppression policy.
SOURCE
Fire Ecology · Mozambique burned-area and survival analysis
View original evidence ↗
Landsat fire histories reveal how vegetation type structures the real disturbance regime in Niassa Special Reserve.
Read the Wild Lands assessment →