Video#8-:The Death Of A Forest – Mozambique

I found these words on the back of Pedro Capela’s book of poetry and wildlife flowers of Mozambique:

“Unrealistic, beautiful, useless, deep, a perfect organised suicide.”

During the 15 years O’D and I have spent in the forest of the Nhamacoa, we have seen these words played out before our eyes

The destruction of the beautiful indigenous forest of Mozambique is a form of organised suicide

the Mozambicans rush like lemmings to their destruction, refusing to be pulled back from the abyss.

Living only for the day and not caring about the future; they appear blind to the fact that forest resources are finite and if they don’t look after it, their cooking pots are going to remain cold.

You can reforest the vast tracks of emptiness but while it takes 5 minutes to cut down a tree, it takes between 40 – 60 years to grow an indigenous forest.

In the meantime, the habitat is gone, the animals become extinct, the fauna and flora die.

Exotic or plantation timber such as quick growing eucalypt or pine isn’t the answer as these so not produce the same conditions for the original flora and fauna that has been displaced by the destruction of the original forest.

To Watch Video click You Tube Link Below-:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d74goTrEvyE

  VAL

Video#7-:Help! We Have An Explosion Of Monkeys!

With the destruction of most of the forest in the Nhamacoa, the trees around us now teem with hundreds of monkeys.

We have a group of about 30 Samangos who live near our dam. They’re no trouble at all as they keep to the treetops and rarely come to the ground.

The Vervets, however, appear to be the juvenile delinquents of the monkey family and unfortunately cause a lot of damage. They’re very wasteful and last year plundered our mango crop until it was completely destroyed by taking a bite or two out of the fruit and then throwing it down uneaten onto the ground in order to make way for another.

They pillage our vegetable garden by pulling out all the vegetables, not to eat but merely out of curiosity and often make raids on our garden, veranda, and laundry room. Douglas has even found them in our outside kitchen and we have had to waive our own rules by allowing him to aim his catapult at their powder blue bums to warn them off!

Trapped in our small space with nowhere to go, the Vervet population has exploded and as these animals live to about 24 years of age, the prospects for the future are alarming.

Various solutions have been put forward to deal with our Vervet problem.

Idalina Fiosse Gavumende, our local Chefe do Posto, has suggested to the population that she bring in hunters to kill all the monkeys.

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I can think of nothing more appalling. First, the population destroys the animals’ habitat and then a government official wants to shoot and kill them!

Deportation to a game park is obviously the answer but how do we do this without disturbing all the other animals in our little forest? And where do we go for sensible

help? This needs quite a lot of thought.

The poor baboons are now trapped in some panga panga trees, in an area the local people use as a cemetery. Their future is also uncertain. A couple of months ago Idalina was at it again. Did the local population want her to bring in hunters to kill all the baboons?

Val. 

To watch Video Please Click You Tube Link Below-:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUIqEqoWFTc

Video#6-; The Making Of A Dam

For years O’D has wanted to turn a deep gully in our little forest into a small dam but we have never had the money to do this.

Then one day, Albertino and Amaro Ferreira who own a brick-making factory called Ceramica de Vila Pery told O’D they wanted to buy our small mountain of sawdust.  In exchange for the sawdust, they agreed to put Ceramica’s ancient little Massey Ferguson bulldozer (aged about 40 years old) to work and by the time the rains arrived, the dam was ready.

Our dog, Miss Bandit, enjoyed helping out too!

Oh, by the way, Vila Pery is the old Portuguese name for Chimoio during Colonial days.

To watch Video; Click You Tube Link Below 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PfE60SSyKI