There are places where the stakes of conservation could not be clearer. The Mwai Landscape, stretching across the southern coast of Mozambique, is one of them.
Bounded by the Indian Ocean and connecting two national protected areas spanning international borders, the landscape forms part of the Futi Corridor, a critical wildlife link between Maputo National Park in Mozambique and the Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Its significance reaches beyond elephant movement and biodiversity. It also supports the resilience of a cross-border ecosystem and is home to six communities: Matchia, Chia, Huco, Mussongue, Massale and Madjadjane; whose livelihoods, governance and relationship with the land shape what conservation here can become.
This is a year-long, structured support initiative designed to bring high-quality, community-led carbon projects closer to becoming operational realities through carbon certification under PV Climate. It is an early and significant milestone, and the Plan Vivo Accelerator provides precisely the kind of targeted support that landscape-scale projects require at this stage: refining the financial modelling, developing technical skills such as carbon accounting, and ensuring strong participatory approaches are being implemented. Critically, it also creates the space to ensure that local communities are at the centre of project design, decision-making and long-term stewardship.
Technical Assistance and Commercial and Investment Readiness Support for the Accelerator is delivered from The Landscape and Livelihoods Group, Ekos, and Terranomics. They draw on input from our in-country entity, Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável e Conservação (FDSC), and other local partners to support the project move from concept to a clearly defined, investable model that meets Plan Vivo’s rigorous requirements while delivering measurable outcomes.
At its core, the Mwai Landscape Project is working to build a conservation economy that is both financially viable and genuinely owned by the communities who live there. The premise is straightforward: intact ecosystems and community livelihoods should be mutually reinforcing, not competing, priorities.
The landscape faces pressures common across much of southern Africa. Land conversion for agriculture and charcoal production is the primary driver of degradation, and addressing it requires practical, locally appropriate interventions developed in close partnership with the communities themselves.
The project is likely to focus on two areas: 1) sustainable charcoal production, shifting from tree-felling to coppicing practices, where branches are harvested rather than whole trees, allowing regrowth and reducing forest loss over time; 2) agroforestry, integrating tree cover with subsistence and cash crops to improve soil health, reduce shifting cultivation, and create more stable, diversified livelihoods.
One opportunity stands out: Coffee racemosa, a rare, naturally occurring coffee variety found in the Mwai area. Low in caffeine and distinctive in flavour, it fetches around $200 per kg for unprocessed beans. If it can be cultivated commercially alongside conservation goals, it could represent a genuinely transformative income stream for communities in the area.
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The Plan Vivo Accelerator Programme runs through to October 2026, with the aim of having robust Free, Prior and Informed Consent and project agreements in place. This will add immense value to the completion of a fully drafted project design document for certification under PV Climate. That clarity is worth the work required to reach it. The groundwork, encompassing community engagement, governance development, baseline assessments, and theory of change, is the most consequential part of this process, and it requires time and care to do well.
The six Mwai communities, working through ACCCF and traditional leadership structures, are the custodians of this land and the centre of gravity for everything that follows. We see them rising as the stewards and champions of this remarkable wildscape. Building alignment across a diverse landscape with different communities, governance structures, and needs is complex work. It is also what gives a project like this its legitimacy.
We are glad to be working alongside Plan Vivo, FDSC, and our technical partners to navigate it, and we look forward to sharing more as the project develops.
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