Forest fragmentation and habitat degradation: Finding the balance between sustainable forest use and biodiversity in the EAM of Tanzania

Kjersti Bakkebø Fjellstad

The Eastern Arc Mountains (EAMs) is a chain of isolated mountain blocks extending from southern Tanzania to southern Kenya.

High biodiversity
Because of the special microclimate in tropical mountain forests, the long geological history of many of the forests, and their degree of isolation, these mountains are rich in biodiversity and endemism, and are one of the top 25 biodiversity “hot spots” in the world. Earlier they were covered by forest but in the recent years much of the original forests have been converted for agricultural crops.

Reduced forest size
The reduced forest size and fragmentation/isolation in the EAMs gives us an opportunity to investigate to what extent biodiversity and endemism is related to degree of fragmentation occurring at different scales of time and space. In this context it is important to know when the fragments arose in their present size, in order to enlighten the above questions from the perspectives of bio geographic events, human influence and evolution.

Objectives of the study
1. We will quantify the status of the forest plant resources in the fragments of the EAM, assess their contribution to local people livelihoods, and impacts of resource use, and an attempt to balance between utilization and conservation.
2. To gain knowledge on to what extent diversity of organisms depends on size of the forest islands, and to study forests with different recent reductions in size by human activity in order to model the long-term effects of forest reduction on diversity and endemism.
3. To measure the importance of continuity in a geological time scale on the degree of endemism in these forest islands and colonization routes.
4. We will study the plant species to determine their distribution pattern and factors that influence that pattern
6. To establish the coping mechanisms of local communities to the ecological changes.

Project coordinator at INA:
Fred Midtgaard

Cooperating institutions:
Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)

Financed by:
Norad

Published: 02.10.06
Updated: 02.10.09
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