This study analyses the long-term interactions of social history and biophysical processes in the Chibuene landscape, the coastal plain of southern Mozambique, 400 AD to the present. The changing socio-natural relationships and preactices of environmental management are discussed on the basis of vegetation and landuse history, the archaeological material from the Chibuene site complex, written sources and interviews with the elders of the village Chibuene, adressing current debates on environmental change in the region of southern Africa and the Chibuene village itself.