Plant communities and landscapes of the Parque Nacional do Limpopo, Moçambique

The Parque Nacional do Limpopo (Limpopo National Park) was proclaimed during 2002. It covers 1 000 000 ha in Mocambique on the eastern boundary of the Kruger National Park and forms one of the major components of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. A vegetation map was required as input to its management plan. The major objectives of the study were firstly to understand the environmental determinants of the vegetation, secondly to identify individual plant communities and thirdly to delineate landscapes in terms of their plant community make-up, environmental determinants and distribution. A combination of fieldwork and analysis of Landsat satellite imagery was used. A total of 175 sample plots were surveyed. Information from another 363 sites that were briefly assessed during aerial and ground surveys was used to further define the extent of the landscapes. The ordination results indicate the overriding importance of moisture availability in determining vegetation composition. Fifteen distinct plant communities are recognised. Different combinations of these plant communities are grouped into ten landscapes. These strongly reflect the underlying geology. The landscapes of the park have strong affinities to a number of landscapes found in the adjoining Kruger National Park. The main difference is the much greater importance of sandveld landscapes in Parque Nacional do Limpopo. Sandveld constitutes 44 % of its surface area. This represents an area 30 times larger than the total extent of sandveld found in Kruger National Park. This has important implications in that the Parque Nacional do Limpopo contributes in its own right to the conservation value of the transfrontier park. Individual and joint management strategies for Parque Nacional do Limpopo and Kruger National Park need to take into account the different proportional make-up of both areas in terms of their landscapes. The landscape approach has resulted in a common characterization of the two parks that can be used for conservation evaluation, management and planning within the transfrontier context.