The beautiful, biodiversity-rich mountains systems of the SADC region provide vital water catchment services for the region’s fast growing population. But climate change, alien invasive species and over-grazing are degrading these mountains and making it harder for them to act as water towers for lowland agriculture, towns and cities. If action isn’t taken now the consequences could be catastrophic for hundreds of millions of people.

The African Mountain Research Foundation is a UK registered charity set up to help safeguard these fragile mountain systems by enhancing field research, supporting landscape conservation and restoration programmes, generating high elevation meteorological data to help improve national and regional policy-making.

Working with local and regional partners, the foundation is installing and operating a network of automatic weather stations, each with a data logging capability, in secure locations above 1,700 metres across SADC countries. Currently, there are nine of these stations in the network; two in Malawi (on Mount Mulanje and the Nyika Plateau), two in Zimbabwe (on Bvumba and in Nynaga), and five in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa. The data from these sites are freely available on our website. The foundation also has two field research centres, one on Mount Mulanje and a second in the Drakensberg Mountains.

In 2022, the foundation co-produced the first ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022), a four day residential event attended by over 250 scientists and policy-makers from the region. The next SAMC takes place in March 2025. The theme for the conference is ‘Overcoming Boundaries and Barriers’.

Website: www.africanmountainresearch.com                    
Contact: clara@africanmountainresearch.com

Cover image by African Mountain Research Foundation