The Buffer Zone surrounding Chimanimani National Park was established to protect the Chimanimani Mountains from the impacts of deforestation and degradation in the wider landscape. The Chimanimani Mountains hold significant biodiversity, and serves as an important water catchment that provides water to central Mozambique. Chimanimani’s extensive Buffer Zone is unprecedented in Mozambique and further supports the importance of the park. While the park is 65,500 ha, the Buffer Zone creates a 170,000 ha semi-protected area that creates a barrier between the sensitive systems of Chimanimani from drivers of deforestation and degradation within the landscape. The Buffer Zone is a mosaic of villages, forest reserves, plantations, healthy and degraded forests, and agricultural production areas. It is also home to remnant populations of forest elephants, which have declined significantly since the civil war in Mozambique. Communities within and adjacent to the Buffer Zone depend on this landscape for subsistence and livelihoods.