Mount Mulanje Research Station

African Mountain Research

We work in the neglected mountains of southern Africa safeguarding their role as water towers and biodiversity havens by doing three things: (1) generating meteorological data by installing high elevation weather stations (2) building residential mountain research stations and (3) supporting young African mountain scientists. The data we generate (temperature, wind speed/direction, atmospheric pressure, humidity, rainfall and evaporation) is uploaded onto our data portal every hour. We provide this data to scientists, policy makers, researchers, and academics free of charge; it is currently being used to monitor droughts and food shortages, assess the right climatic conditions to grow cedar saplings and to explore correlations between insect populations, weather changes, and predator numbers. Our research station in the Maloti-Drakensberg (>3,000m) enables local scientists to conduct field research in tough conditions. We are now seeking funding to install a residential station on Malawi’s Mt Mulanje. Beneficiaries will include scientists from Carnivore Research Malawi conducting research to verify carnivore populations and behaviours, African Natural History Research Trust’s three-year entomological study to establish a baseline understanding of insect populations and students from Malawi University of Science and Technology researching plant diversity and ecological patterns to inform habitat restoration and protection of watershed catchment areas.