S NORFOLK AND M COSIJN 2013(16)2 PER / PELJ / 212 Box 1 -Definition of forest and woodlandsThe UN Framework Convention on Climate Change defined forests and woodlands as having between 10% to 40% canopy closure. FAO (2000) defines forest ecosystems as areas that are dominated by trees (perennial woody plants taller than 5m at maturity), where tree cover exceeds 10% and the area is larger than 0.5ha and includes areas for production, protection, multiple use or conservation, and stands on agricultural land. This was the basic definition used by the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) In the Mozambican Law on Forestry and Wildlife (Law 10/99 of 7 th June) forests are defined as "vegetation cover capable of supplying wood or vegetative products, sheltering fauna and which exercise a direct or indirect effect on soils, climate or hydrology regimes". The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report (the MA) 2 identified that the development of improved governance systems to control and reduce the degradation of all ecosystems services including forests was of key importance. This governance needs to be adaptive, including ensuring that the following components are integrated: TOWARDS THE LEGAL RECOGNITION AND GOVERNANCE OF FOREST ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN MOZAMBIQUE S Norfolkit must focus on policy and institutional intersections and cooperation at various levels;(ii) it must be flexible to rapid change, and ensure that policy and legal changes are incremental and adaptive with continuous learning;(iii) it must create mechanisms for sustainable forest management (SFM) and livelihoods by securing the rights to forestry goods and services; and (iv) it must create regulatory mechanisms which control activities, develop compensation mechanisms for those, and develop multi-scalar knowledge and stakeholder sharing, social networks and learning mechanisms.However, governance systems are rarely adaptive. Instead they tend to be "stuck" in what is called the local minima (or lowest functioning system). These are in many cases dependent on the history of countries, how the governance systems have evolved, and whether or not these systems are open and transparent and able to adapt quickly, but along a gradient of transition and evolution rather than in a "knee-jerk" response that does not build on the best of existing structures. 4Within the context of Mozambique, this paper examines the state of forest ecosystem services, the dependency of the population on these systems for their well-being, if an adaptive governance regime is being created which will ensure the resilience of the forest ecosystem services including the legal framework, the institutions operating within this framework, the tools available and their functioning, and how cooperative governance is operating. Forest ecosystems, especially the miombo woodlands, are also critical for water quality, groundwater recharge, and flow retention, as they surround many of the lakes, major rivers, such as the Limpopo, Zambezi, Messalo, and Rovuma Rivers, and the ephemeral small ...

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S NORFOLK AND M COSIJN 2013(16)2 PER / PELJ 122 / 212 Box 1-Definition of forest and woodlands The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change defined forests and woodlands as having between 10% to 40% canopy closure. FAO (2000) defines forest ecosystems as areas that are dominated by trees (perennial woody plants taller than 5m at maturity), where tree cover exceeds 10% and the area is larger than 0.5ha and includes areas for production, protection, multiple use or conservation, and stands on agricultural land. This was the basic definition used by the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) In the Mozambican Law on Forestry and Wildlife (Law 10/99 of 7 th June) forests are defined as "vegetation cover capable of supplying wood or vegetative products, sheltering fauna and which exercise a direct or indirect effect on soils, climate or hydrology regimes".