Important Plants (IPAS)
Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are critical sites for the preservation of global plant diversity. The IPA methodology is an internationally recognised standard for identifying these priority sites based on three fundamental criteria.
This network, first published in 2023, is the result of five years of scientific collaboration and is based on several decades of joint botanical exploration and research.
Criterion A
Threatened species
Presence of plants threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List. All 57 sites meet this criterion
Criterion B
Exceptional botanical richness
12 sites possess exceptional richness in plant taxa of high conservation importance.
Criterion C
Threatened habitats
26 IPAs contain intact examples of threatened or restricted-range habitats or ecosystems.
All provinces of Mozambique are represented in the IPA network, except for Tete and Maputo city. The areas are mainly concentrated in two regions:
a) Coastal Regions: Mainly in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula (northeast), and Inhambane, Gaza, and Maputo (southeast).
b) Mountainous Regions: The highlands of Manica (border with Zimbabwe) and the inselbergs of Zambézia and Nampula provinces.
The eight Biodiversity Protection Areas that cumulatively meet criteria A, B, and C stand out:
Lower Rovuma Escarpment
Quiterajo
Chimanimani Mountains
Mount Namuli
Ribáuè-M’paluwe
Gorongosa Mountain
Chimanimani Lowlands
Tsetserra
Only 18 of the 57 IPAs are entirely within Mozambique’s Protected Areas network, and 10 partially overlap, leaving more than half without formal protection. No site is free from threats — even those protected by law face risks from slash-and-burn agriculture and the overexploitation of resources.
IPAs are a crucial tool for prioritising conservation efforts. This work directly supports Mozambique’s commitments under the National Strategy and Action Plan for Biological Diversity of Mozambique 2015-2035 (Ministry of Land and Environment) and as a signatory to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Detailed data on Mozambique’s IPAs can be consulted interactively through the international platform