Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq

Areas like northern Mozambique are understudied. Mario Franco/Getty Images

May 19, 2026

Poor pay is holding back Africa’s biodiversity research and reducing its contribution to global science

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, Lúrio University and Isildo De Nascimento Nganhane, Lúrio University

Low salaries are part of the reason biodiversity remains understudied in Africa.

Niassa Special Reserve in Northern Mozambique’s is just one of the continent’s under-mapped biodiversity areas. Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq

January 26, 2023

It’ll take 150 years to map Africa’s biodiversity at the current rate. We can’t protect what we don’t know

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, University of Copenhagen and Søren Faurby, University of Gothenburg

Huge swathes of Africa remain unstudied and their species undocumented.

The Stiletto Snake is one of the species found in Mozambique. extinctorshy.org - Ali Puruleia

October 12, 2022

Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap – and the results are scary

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, University of Copenhagen

Even by conservative estimates, Mozambique’s snakebite figures are far higher than previously thought.

One of four montane skinks collected by the researchers. Wilson Monia

October 27, 2021

One sentence in a book leads researchers to a species not seen in over 100 years

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, University of Gothenburg and Allison Perrigo, University of Gothenburg

Detailed field notes can help researchers track down rare species.

A specimen of Proscelotes aenea collected by Loveridge in 1918 in Lumbo, Mozambique, now kept at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

August 15, 2021

Search for elusive skinks is filling gaps in Mozambique’s biodiversity data

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, University of Gothenburg and Allison Perrigo, University of Gothenburg

Species distribution data – or a lack thereof – can have a major bearing on how a country’s Key Biodiversity Areas and protected areas are designated.

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