Miombo Network is an organisation dedicated to providing scientific information and policy guidance for a better future of the Miombo forests across their range countries. We conduct research and policy analysis aiming at improving the benefits and human livelihoods from miombo forest ecosystem.

Land Cover mapping and monitoring is one of the two primary themes of Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD), a coordinated international effort working to provide ongoing space-based and in-situ observations of forests and other vegetation cover, for the sustainable management of terrestrial resources and to obtain an accurate, reliable, quantitative understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget. The GOFC-GOLD Land Cover theme is aimed at refining and articulating the international requirements for land cover related observations and making the best possible use of global land cover products from the existing and future satellite observing systems, for forests management, policy decision-making and global change research. To execute and design projects, develop consensus algorithms and methodologies for product generation and validation, the GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Implementation Team works with GOFC-GOLD Regional Networks in Eurasia, Asia, Africa, South and Latin America to bring together land cover data providers, users and researchers operating in a common geographic area, and represent a link between national agencies, user groups and the global user/producer.

Miombo network was founded in 1995 by a group of regional and International scientists[1] the Miombo Network is a regional alliance of researchers whose main focus was to foster collaborative efforts on land use and land-cover change and impacts for the Miombo eco-region of Southern Africa. It was initiated under the auspices of the IGBP/IHDP Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) Project and the IHDP/IGBP/WCRP Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START). The Network’s goal was to support the development of sustainable Miombo woodlands management policies and practices through the collaborative data acquisition from land-based research and monitoring data and supported by remote sensing data and other geospatial information technologies. The Miombo Networks’ purpose was and still remains to enhance the use of information from field observations and remote sensing of the miombo cover for management in southern Africa.

The Miombo Network is the oldest regional network in southern Africa that fosters collaborative efforts in land cover monitoring and management in southern Africa.  Miombo network’s goal is to support the development of sustainable miombo woodlands management policies and practices in southern Africa through information derived from remote sensing and other geospatial information technology. Miombo Network’s purpose is to enhance the use of information from field observations and remote sensing of miombo cover for management in southern Africa. The Miombo Network has collected extensive background information on the ecology, functions and dynamics of miombo systems including land cover and biomass/carbon changes.

In 2013, the Miombo Network was re-launched in a meeting held in Maputo, after almost ten years of inactivity. The main outcome of this meeting was the network’s science plan, which is a document that provides key orientation for research activities in the miombo woodlands. The research areas identified in the plan are: patterns and rates of land cover change, processes and drivers of land use change, carbon and biomass in the miombo woodlands, ecology of the miombo woodlands, miombo management and climate change adaptation, and human dimension of the miombo woodlands. There was also a strong commitment that scientific results produced by the network members should support decision making at national and regional levels.

[1] Paul Desanker, Almeida Sitoe, Dominick Kwesha, Pius Yanda, Manuel Ferrão, Hank Shugar