This dataset contains the transcripts of interviews and discussion groups from seven villages in the Mabalane district, Gaza province, Mozambique. The seven villages were selected from a forest degradation gradient running from villages with abundant undisturbed forest areas to those with degraded forests, mainly driven by charcoal production. The villages had similar infrastructure, soils, rainfall, and vegetation types. The dataset contains information on seasonality, how availability and use of products from the forest has changed over time (trend analysis), wealth ranking within the villages and differences between wealth statuses, and profiles/characteristics of each village. Interviews were conducted with groups in each village or the leader of the village, between May and September 2014. Data were collected as part of a project funded under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/49a70237-c579-4669-b126-3f23d494aba6

Data comprise causal diagrams which show links between aspects that influence the well-being of rural inhabitants (e.g. good quality of food, good family relationships, education, etc) with ecosystem services (e.g. food from trees, wood sticks for construction, firewood, wood for charcoal production, etc.) and their causes (e.g. change in land use) in rural Mozambique. Information was gathered at 20 workshops held in Maputo, Xai Xai, Lichinga, Quelimane, and at village level in the districts of Mabalane, Marrupa and Gurue in 2014 and 2015. The objective of the workshops was to examine aspects that influence well-being and their causes in the miombo woodland area of rural Mozambique. One of the objectives of the project was to construct Bayesian belief networks (BBNs) to model future land use change scenarios in rural Mozambique using a participatory approach, to evaluate the consequences of deforestation in the well-being of the rural population. The data were collected as part of the Abrupt Changes in Ecosystem Services and Wellbeing in Mozambican Woodlands (ACES) project and were funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, funded by NERC, the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), the three are government organizations from UK. The project was led by the University of Edinburgh, with the collaboration of the Universidad Mondlane, the IIED, and other organizations. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/14622c4b-8bd4-4624-8ea6-35da7da211cd

This dataset contains the transcripts of interviews on the current structure of the main charcoal supply chains from seven villages in the Mabalane district of Gaza province to Maputo, Mozambique. The seven villages were at different stages of the charcoal production process within similar soils, rainfall, and vegetation types. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with key informants (e.g. village leaders, charcoal producers, wholesalers, truck drivers and forest officers), from May to October 2014. Data were collected as part of a project funded under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/56bae7ce-4798-41a4-b702-2f847952f7ae

Data comprise scenarios of how land use can be in the future and how will it affect ecosystem services in rural Mozambique. The scenarios were constructed from information gathered at five workshops held in Maputo, Xai Xai, Quelimane and Lichinga in 2014 and 2015. The objective of the workshops was to examine aspects that influence well-being (e.g. ecosystem services) and their causes (e.g. change in land use) in the Miombo woodland area of rural Mozambique and identify actions that could contribute to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. The final objective was to construct scenarios of how the land use can be in Mozambique in the future (2035). The data were collected as part of the Abrupt Changes in Ecosystem Services and Wellbeing in Mozambican Woodlands (ACES) project and were funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, funded by NERC, the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), the three are government organizations from UK. The project was led by the University of Edinburgh, with the collaboration of the Universidad Mondlane, the IIED, and other organizations. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/97c65c35-1db5-49d5-8ee0-ae5c7b699634

The data consist of woody biomass maps of three study areas - Mabalane, Gurue, and Maruppa in Mozambique. Each area map comprises three Geotiff layers stacked in the order band 1= 2007, band 2 = 2010, band 3 = 2014. Each pixel is an aboveground woody biomass in tonnes of carbon per hectare (ha). For the biomass maps -18.00000 means no data. Due to noise, it is possible to have negative biomass estimates. Individual layers can extracted for year specific analyses. Data were collected as part of the Abrupt Changes in Ecosystem Services and Wellbeing in Mozambican Woodlands (ACES) project under the ESPA programme Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/6a8b07f9-552e-408c-8351-595ee6a7fc5f

This dataset contains the transcripts of interviews and discussion groups on the current soya production from ten villages in the Gurue district, Zambezia province, Mozambique. The ten villages were selected from different stages of a land scarcity gradient running from villages with abundant land to those with intense land constraints, mainly driven by expanding agricultural activities and population density. The villages had similar infrastructure, soils, rainfall, and vegetation types. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with village small-scale soya producers, emergent soya farmers, managers of commercial soya producing operations, district officer, technicians of NGOs, formal and informal traders between July and December 2015. Data were collected as part of a project funded under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/18c8cbf3-ed55-4065-b52b-b2a4c2ffdf1c

This dataset contains the transcripts of interviews and discussion groups from ten villages in the Gurue district, Zambezia province, Mozambique. The ten villages were selected from a land scarcity gradient running from villages with abundant land to those with intense land constraints, mainly driven by expanding agricultural activities and population density. The villages had similar infrastructure, soils, rainfall, and vegetation types. The dataset contains information on participatory mapping of the village characteristics, seasonality, how agricultural activity has changed over time (trend analysis), wealth ranking within the villages and differences between wealth statuses, and profiles/characteristics of each village. Interviews were conducted with groups in each village or the leader of the village, between July and December 2015. Data were collected as part of a project funded under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/f82f7ad8-0e98-41cb-951e-be64ffd36078

This dataset comprises 259 smallholder agricultural field surveys collected from twenty-six villages across three Districts in Mozambique, Africa. Surveys were conducted in ten fields in each of six villages in Mabalane District, Gaza Province, ten villages in Marrupa District, Niassa Province, and ten villages in Gurue District, Zambezia Province. Data were collected in Mabalane between May-Sep 2014, Marrupa between May-Aug 2015, and Gurue between Sep-Dec 2015. Fields were selected based on their age, location, and status as an active field at the time of the survey (i.e. no fallow fields were sampled). Structured interviews using questionnaires were conducted with each farmer to obtain information about current management practices (e.g. use of inputs, tilling, fire and residue management), age of the field, crops planted, crop yields, fallow cycles, floods, erosion and other problems such as crop pests and wild animals. The survey also includes qualitative observations about the fields at the time of the interview, including standing live trees and cropping systems. This dataset was collected as part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) funded ACES project , which aims to understand how changing land use impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing of the rural poor in Mozambique. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/78c5dcee-61c1-44be-9c47-8e9e2d03cb63

This dataset contains quantitative measurements of woodland structure and composition sampled in twenty-seven different villages across three Districts in Mozambique, Africa. Data were collected from 431 plots where tree stem structure and composition, litter and grass biomass, coarse woody debris, and canopy cover data were recorded. Woodlands within seven villages in Mabalane District, Gaza Province, ten villages in Marrupa District, Niassa Province, and ten villages in Gurue District Zambezia Province were sampled. Data were collected in Mabalane between May-Sep 2014, Marrupa between May-Aug 2015, and Gurue between Sep-Dec 2015. This dataset was collected as part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) funded ACES project , which aims to understand how changing land use impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing of the rural poor in Mozambique. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/70b5cdda-72df-4007-b10e-d75b4046e603

The dataset includes lists of local tree names, tree species identification and local uses of trees in seventeen different villages across three Districts in Mozambique, Africa. We collated species lists from seven villages in Mabalane District, Gaza Province, ten villages in Marrupa District, Niassa Province, and ten villages in Gurue District Zambezia Province. Data were collected in Mabalane between May-Sep 2014, Marrupa between May-Aug 2015, and Gurue between Sep-Dec 2015. Lists of local tree names were collated from several forest plots and agricultural field surveys occurring within the sampled villages, and their species identified in the field by the authors and/or from dried and pressed samples by botanists at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. Tree species uses by local populations were recorded through a mixture of key informant interviews, focus group discussions, village surveys and ad-hoc observations. This dataset was collected as part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) funded ACES project , which aims to understand how changing land use impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing of the rural poor in Mozambique. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/52371ef0-855f-40c8-8567-f8965f9cbf03