Two decades of change in state, pressure and conservation responses in the coastal forest biodiversity hotspot of Tanzania

Abstract

We present an analysis of changes of state, pressures and conservation responses over  years in the Tanzanian portion of the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa biodiversity hotspot. Baseline data collected during - are compared with data from a synthesis of recently published papers and reports and new field work carried out across the region during -. We show that biodiversity endemism values are largely unchanged, although two new species (amphibian and mammal) have been named and two extremely rare tree species have been relocated. However, forest habitat continues to be lost and degraded, largely as a result of agricultural expansion, charcoal production to supply cities with cooking fuel, logging for timber and cutting of wood for firewood and building poles. Habitat loss is linked to an increase in the number of species threatened over time. The government-managed forest reserve network has expanded slightly but has low effectiveness. Three forest reserves have been upgraded to National Parks and Nature Reserves, which have stricter protection and more effective enforcement. There has also been rapid development of village-owned forest reserves, with more than  now existing; although usually small, they are an important addition to the areas being managed for sustainable resource use, and also provide tangible benefits to local people. Human-use pressures remain intense in many areas, and combined with emerging pressures from mining, gas and oil exploration, many endemic species remain threatened with extinction.

A third of the tropical African flora is potentially threatened with extinction

“…3) and numbers (fig. S2) of LR/PR species, reflecting the high level of plant endemism in the EAMCF ( 34 , 35 ). These species were not flagged as threatened either because they are found in protected areas or because the layers used to detect decline are not precise enough areas in this highly fragmented region (see limits of our study, detailed below).…”

“…For example, the country of São Tomé and Principe has one of the lowest proportions of LT/PT species but is known to have a high rate of species endemism ( 31 ). The land cover layer that we used clearly is not sufficiently resolved for our purposes because native vegetation is indicated as intact in areas where it is in fact known to be highly fragmented ( 34 , 41 ). Our comparison with published IUCN assessments (for 2009 species) shows that most species assessed as Rare in our analysis (i.e., LR/PR) were assessed as CR, EN, or EX under the full IUCN Red List criteria (Table 3).…”

A silver lining to REDD: Institutional growth despite programmatic failure

“…Note that in a few cases shape files were not yet available for newly formed shehia resulting from a splitting of a previous shehia, so the original shehia area is shown. Shehia mentioned in the text are Maziwa Ngombe (1), Shenge Juu (2), Tumbe Mashariki (3), Wambaa (4), Chokocho (5), Ukunjwi (6), Pujini (7), Chamboni (8), Shamiani Kiweni (9), Makangale (10), Chumbageni (11), Kojani (12), Wingwi Mapofu 13forest (paralleling successes of village initiatives stemming coastal forest loss on the mainland, Burgess et al, 2017). Such cases had motivated other communities, according to expert witness accounts.…”

The state of protected and conserved areas in Eastern and Southern Africa

“…Part II -Regional context, data and country profiles and 0.6% per year outside the reserves during the same periods (Burgess et al, 2017;Godoy et al, 2012). (Gorenflo et al, 2011).…”