The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the National Directorate of Forests of Mozambique have started a forestry project in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, Xinhua reports.
The Chinese government-run news agency quotes the FAO as saying the project entails spending US$3.6 million on 4 million hectares of countryside, home to 150,000 people, to conserve the biodiversity of forest ecosystems and mitigate the harm done to them by changes in the climate.
The project will ensure that the inhabitants benefit from the exploitation of forests through payments made on condition that certain standards for protecting the environment are met, Xinhua says.
