Local people protect nature in Tanzania’s biodiversity hotspot
10
Local people protect nature in Tanzania’s biodiversity hotspot
In 2001, German biologist Viola Clausnitzer was working in the Amani-SigiForest in Tanzania’s East Usambara Mountains when she spotted something special.
Amani flatwing (Amanipodagrion gilliesi)/credit. german biologist viola clausnitzer.
At a small, boulder-strewn stream in the dense forest, she had found a kind of dragonfly that had not been seen since 1962, when it was first described for science. “It was exciting,” says Clausnitzer. “Virtually nothing was known about its ecology, behaviour and habitat.”
The dragonfly was anAmaniflatwing (
Amanipodagriongilliesi). It is today known from just one location and is considered to be critically-endangered. But it is just one of many rare and threatened species that are found nowhere else on Earth than in the East Usambara Mountains. They include birds and snakes and frogs and plants. With threats to these species increasing, local people are now working together to increase habitat and safeguard this special place.