These species-rich savanna ecosystems cover wide areas of gentle hills and low valleys containing rivers and dambo wetlands.

The region is located on the East African Plateau, extending from inland south-eastern Tanzania to cover the northern half of Mozambique, with small areas in neighbouring Malawi.

It is bounded by the Northern and Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic to the east along the Indian Ocean, and by the Zambezian and mopane woodlands in the Zambezi lowlands to the southwest, and by Lake Malawi to the west.

The miombo and other vegetation in and around the region have historically a variety of food and cover for several miombo specialist endemic bird and lizard species as well as more widespread mammals including herds of African elephant (Loxodonta africana), giraffe, Burchell's zebra (Equus burchelli), wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and antelopes including greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), eland (Taurotragus oryx), impala (Aepyceros melampus), Roosevelt sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) and Lichtenstein's hartebeest (Sigmoceros lichtensteinii) (Campbell 1996).

The roan antelope is mysteriously absent from the Eastern Miombo woodlands,[2] and the long dry season and poor soils do not support the large herds of herbivores found further north in Tanzania.

Reptiles include common crocodiles while the endemics are the two sub-species of the spotted flat lizard, and the chameleon Chamaeleon tornieri (although the validity of this last species classification has been questioned).

This was developed as a result of the increasing concern about global climate change, and the recent evolution of carbon markets, paired with a need for poverty reduction and alternative livelihoods where rural communities lack the resources to prevent environmental degradation.