Namúli Mount, the Identity and the Landscape of Gurué

Abstract

This reflection arises from a look at the African landscape, the mountains and their ecosystems, the agriculture, the heritage, communities and identity. This is about the landscape, which integrates man and territory, and its multifunctionality that includes the production system (agriculture), protection (ecosystems, flows and ecological processes) and the cultural system (communities and the way they build space). This set constitutes a complex and relational system resulting in the identity of a region and the communities that inhabit it. The excessive exploitation of natural resources and the tendency towards the growth of an economy based on tourism, causes the transformation of the landscape to occur in the sense of losing its character, its culture and, consequently, its identity. The objective of this work is to identify invariants of this landscape, which can be considered in future proposals for planning and management plans for this area, in order to preserve the Gurué landscape and its identity. Through an analysis of the existing cartography and bibliography, the natural systems, their flows and processes and the cultural and heritage elements of this area were first identified and characterized. Based on this diagnostic phase, invariant elements (either natural or cultural) that determine the culture and identity of this landscape and must therefore be safeguarded and maintained, were identified. The guidelines appear later, in this sense - the preservation of fundamental values in the culture and identity of Namúli Mount and the landscape of Gurué, where it is inserted.