Ecosystem: Eastern Arc Mountains & Coastal Forests of Tanzania & Kenya
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ECOSYSTEM PROFILE EASTERN ARC MOUNTAINS & COASTAL FORESTS OF TANZANIA & KENYA Final version July 31, 2003 (updated: march 2005) Prepared by: Conservation International International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology In collaboration with: Nature Kenya Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania With the technical support of: Centre for Applied Biodiversity Science - Conservation International East African Herbarium National Museums of Kenya Missouri Botanical Garden Tanzania Forest Conservation Group Zoology Department, University of Dar es Salaam WWF Eastern Africa Regional Programme Office WWF United States And a special team for this ecosystem profile: Neil Burgess Tom Butynski Ian Gordon Quentin Luke Peter Sumbi John Watkin Assisted by experts and contributors: KENYA Hamdan Sheha Idrissa Perkin Andrew Barrow Edmund Howell Kim Verberkmoes Anne Marie Gakahu Chris Kajuni A R Ward Jessica Githitho Anthony Kilahama Felician Kabii Tom Kafumu George R BELGIUM Kimbwereza Elly D Kabugi Hewson Lens Luc Kanga Erustus Lejora Inyasi A.V. Matiku Paul Lulandala Luther Mbora David Mallya Felix UK Mugo Robinson Mariki Stephen Burgess Neil Ndugire Naftali Masayanyika Sammy Odhiambo Peter Mathias Lema USA Thompson Hazell Milledge Simon Brooks Thomas Wandago Ben Mlowe Edward Gereau Roy Mpemba Erastp Langhammer Penny Msuya Charles TANZANIA Ocker Donnell Mungaya Elias Sebunya Kaddu Baldus Rolf D Mwasumbi Leonard Bhukoli Alice Struhsaker Tom Salehe John Wieczkowski Julie Doggart Nike Stodsrod Jan Erik Howlett David Tapper Elizabeth Hewawasam Indu Offninga Esther Editing assistance by Ian Gordon, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology ii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................................................5 THE ECOSYSTEM PROFILE............................................................................................................................................5 BACKGROUND......................................................................................................................................................................6 Geography of the Hotspot.........................................................................................7 The Eastern Arc Mountains ......................................................................................8 The East African Coastal Forest Mosaic ................................................................10 BIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE........................................................................................................................................ 11 Biodiversity in the Eastern Arc Mountains ..............................................................11 Biodiversity in the Coastal Forests .........................................................................12 Levels of Protection ................................................................................................13 CONSERVATION OUTCOMES ................................................................................................................................... 16 Overview of Conservation Outcomes .....................................................................17 Species Outcomes..................................................................................................18 Site Outcomes ........................................................................................................19 SOCIOECONOMIC FEATURES .................................................................................................................................. 25 Institutional Framework...........................................................................................25 Policy and Legislation.............................................................................................29 Economic Situation.................................................................................................34 Infrastructure and Regional Development ..............................................................36 Demography and Social Trends .............................................................................37 SYNOPSIS OF CURRENT THREATS....................................................................................................................... 38 Levels of Threat......................................................................................................39 Main Threats...........................................................................................................39 Agriculture...............................................................................................................40 Commercial Timber Extraction ...............................................................................42 Mining .....................................................................................................................43 Fires........................................................................................................................43 Ranking of Threats in Tanzania..............................................................................44 Analysis of Root Causes.........................................................................................45 SYNOPSIS OF CURRENT INVESTMENT ............................................................................................................... 48 Levels of Funding ...................................................................................................48 Types of Project Interventions ................................................................................49 Numbers of IBAs with Project Interventions ...........................................................49 Spread of Conservation Attention Across Different IBAs........................................50 Funding Allocation Against Biological Priority.........................................................50 CEPF NICHE FOR INVESTMENT................................................................................................................................ 52 CEPF INVESTMENT STRATEGY AND PRIORITIES.......................................................................................... 54 Program Focus .......................................................................................................54 Strategic Directions.................................................................................................54 SUSTAINABILITY ............................................................................................................................................................... 62 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................................................... 63 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXT .................................................................................................................... 64 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 66 APPENDICES....................................................................................................................................................................... 71 iv INTRODUCTION The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world's threatened biodiversity hotspots in developing countries. It is a joint initiative of Conservation International (CI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. CEPF supports projects in hotspots, the biologically richest and most endangered areas on Earth. A fundamental purpose of CEPF is to ensure that civil society is engaged in efforts to conserve biodiversity in the hotspots. An additional purpose is to ensure that those efforts complement existing strategies and frameworks established by local, regional and national governments. CEPF aims to promote working alliances among community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government, academic institutions and the private sector, combining unique capacities and eliminating duplication of efforts for a comprehensive approach to conservation. CEPF is unique among funding mechanisms in that it focuses on biological areas rather than political boundaries and examines conservation threats on a corridor-wide basis to identify and support a regional, rather than a national, approach to achieving conservation outcomes. Corridors are determined through a process of identifying important species, site and corridor-level conservation outcomes for the hotspot. CEPF targets transboundary cooperation when areas rich in biological value straddle national borders, or in areas where a regional approach will be more effective than a national approach. The Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya hotspot (hereafter referred to as the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests hotspot) is one of the smallest of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots.1 It qualifies by virtue of its high endemicity and a severe degree of threat. Although the hotspot ranks low compared to other hotspots in total numbers of endemic species, it ranks first among the 25 hotspots in the number of endemic plant and vertebrate species per unit area (Myers et al. 2000). It also shows a high degree of congruence for