In 2022, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) carried out eDNA sampling along Mozambique’s northern coast. The aim was to establish biodiversity baselines for degraded coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds. The insights are informing where community-managed fisheries areas should be placed and strengthening the strategic expansion of Mozambique’s marine protected area (MPA) network.

Mozambique’s 1,500-mile coastline supports rich biodiversity and millions of livelihoods. Overfishing and habitat degradation are putting these ecosystems under growing pressure. To identify conservation priority areas and inform MPA expansion, WCS needed a practical, scalable way to quickly establish a biodiversity baseline across coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds.

In 2022, WCS collected eDNA samples using NatureMetrics’ service. Samples came from 104 coral, mangrove and seagrass sites along the northern Mozambique coastline. NatureMetrics then:

• Analysed the samples, detecting species across a wide range of taxonomic groups
• Turned the complex data into clear, actionable insights, delivered through the Nature Intelligence Platform

WCS is now combining these eDNA insights with Earth Observation data and its own biodiversity datasets. The eDNA data is used to ground-truth the Earth Observation data, so that species distributions can be predicted across far larger areas than sampling alone can cover. The result will be seascape-scale biodiversity maps that support conservation planning and large-scale monitoring.

Across 104 samples, the surveys detected 508 vertebrate species and 1,808 eukaryote species, from a total of 23,491 species detections. Together, the results give WCS a comprehensive biodiversity baseline that spans multiple habitats along Mozambique’s northern coastline.

The baseline is now guiding WCS’s proposal for a new large-scale MPA that includes a network of community-managed fisheries areas. The work also lays the foundations for the future:

• Tracking conservation gains: Ongoing eDNA monitoring will let WCS track biodiversity gains as protections take effect, showing measurable outcomes for nature and local communities.
• A scalable model: Combining eDNA with Earth Observation data gives a model for planning marine conservation at large scale.
• The Blue Economy: The approach has direct applications for strengthening Mozambique’s Blue Economy.