Understanding and Defining Pathways for Ecosystems Services Decision Making, Sustainability and Livelihoods of Rural Communities of the Mozambique

Resumo

Ecosystems services are at the base of the pyramid, strategy, and survival of rural communities in many developing countries such as Mozambique. Its massive decline has been widely announced and the future of rural communities is severely threatened. However, directing policies or decision-making to protect the local ecosystems services will involve deeply understanding the way and lifestyle of communities, understanding their needs, exploring perceptions about the values and importance of services as well as recognising pro and cons attitudes the implementation of sustainable actions. Thus, these perceptions can illuminate paths to redefine new paradigms for the protection and sustainability of local ecosystem services. Our research examines the perception of the different ways of use, exploitation, importance, and attitude of the rural communities of northern Mozambique on the local ecosystems services as a way of contributing to sustainable strategies. We favoured the application of questionnaires as the quantitative assessment procedure of respondents (N = 1000). Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2) was applied to assess the association between variables. However, the Person test revealed positive correspondences or associations between the variables tested. We have found limitations to the recognition and attribution of the importance and value of local ecosystem services by communities. The considerable reduction in provisioning services is pointed out as the main threats to the reduction of local ecosystem services by communities. Nevertheless, ways to protect and sustain local ecosystem services have been identified and discussed.