Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve is a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 founded in 1927 in Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

. It is operated by the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust

Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust

The Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust is a conservation trust in Malawi.It is an environmental endowment trust funded by the World Bank through the Global Environmental Facility and aims at providing long-term reliable support for biodiversity research and conservation of biological diversity...

.

Geographical background

The mountain is composed of syenite

Syenite

Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or...

, quartz-syenite

Syenite

Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or...

 and granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rock materials. This forms a massif

Massif

In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...

 of approximately 500 km².

The surrounding Mulanje

Mulanje

Mulanje is a town in the Southern Region of Malawi close to the border of Mozambique. It is near the Mulanje Massif.Mulanje is the headquarters of the conservation group, the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust....

 mountain is characterized by densely populated plains situated at 600m-700m above sea level. From the plains, it rises abruptly to high plateau basins at 1800-1900m surmounted by rock peaks to its maximum attitude of 3002m above sea level, Sapitwa Peak. In fact the mountain is the highest both in Malawi and South Central Africa.

The structure and altitude of the mountain have led to the development of a unique climate for the area, which is characterised by high rainfalls from November to April. This climate favours the development of unique ecology of rare and endemic life forms which contribute to the massif's high biodiversity.

Fauna and flora

The native Mulanje Cypress

Widdringtonia

Widdringtonia is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae . The name was apparently Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher's way of honouring an early expert on the coniferous forests of Spain, Capt. Samuel Edward Cook or Widdrington...

 (Widdringtonia whytei) has been so heavily logged that it is considered endangered and the park contains the last remaining stands of this tree, as well as a number of other plant and animal species—many of them endemic to the area. Examples include forest butterfies, birds such as the cholo alethe and White-winged Apalis, Dwarf Chameleon, gecko

Gecko

Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....

s, skink

Skink

Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...

s, the Squeaker Frog, and a rare limbless burrowing skink species. The land around the park is threatened by growing population, land use patterns such as forest clearing for farming and firewood, and invasive species such as Mexican Pine and Himalayan Raspberry.