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
Hope for rare species as villagers remove invasive umbrella trees
12
Hope for rare species as villagers remove invasive umbrella trees
Walk in the forests of Tanzania’s East Usumbara Mountains and you may be lucky enough to hear the metallic call – peedoopeedoo – of one of the world’s rarest birds, the Long-billed forest warbler (Artisornismoreaui).
The Long-billed forest warbler (Artisornismoreaui) found in Amani Nature Reserve feeding chicks photo: Markus Lilje, Amani Nature Reserve
This species lives nowhere else on Earth and, according the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are fewer than 250 mature individuals.
Conservationists fear the bird will be silenced forever by the steady march into its territory of invasive umbrella trees. These trees also threaten other local species of endangered birds, reptiles, insects and plants. But now there are glimmers of hope, thanks to a project that has supported local villagers to remove umbrella trees a