Mount Moco, Mountain summit in Huambo Province, Angola
Mount Moco is a mountain in Huambo Province, western Angola, reaching 2,620 metres with 1,510 metres of topographic prominence above the Central Plateau. It lies about 70 kilometres west of the city of Huambo. Its slopes hold Afromontane forest patches within the Angolan montane forest-grassland mosaic, and the summit is the country's highest point.
The Mount Moco Project began in 2010 with a native tree nursery to protect the region's forests. This effort has supported sustainable woodland management and environmental conservation work over time.
Kanjonde, at the foot of the mountain, is led by a soba (chief); it was chief Amândio Cabo who in 2012 authorised the expansion of the native tree nursery started by the Mount Moco Project in July 2010. The village has no electricity, so residents cook with wood fuel and farm for subsistence, burning vegetation and felling trees in the mountain's valleys.
Access requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle via a road starting around 500 meters east of Ussoque on the Huambo-Lobito route. Climb during drier months when trails are more passable and weather conditions are favorable.
The area is an important bird reserve hosting around 233 bird species, including the Angola Cave Chat and Swierstra's Francolin nesting in their natural forest homes. These high forests provide critical refuge for several threatened bird species found nowhere else nearby.
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