Mozambique is home to one of the world’s most diverse hotspots of marine life with 900 species of reef-associated fishes, 400 species of mollusks, 70 species of hard and soft corals, 122 species of sharks and rays, 5 of the 7 species of turtles that exist worldwide, the last viable population of dugongs in the Western Indian Ocean, 740 species of sea and coastal birds, and 2,910 km2 of mangroves. Nurturing these assets are large intact ecosystems, such as the Zambezi River delta, which contains the second largest contiguous mangrove habitat in Africa that provides a nursery for juvenile fish and key marine species⏤the Zambezi mangrove stand has in fact increased in size by around 10% over the past two decades to 37,034 hectares. USAID SPEED has started to support marine conservation efforts in Mozambique.
