Coastal forests of East Africa

The Limpopo River

The Tana 1998

The Galagos of the coastal forests are nocturnal tree dwellers

The coastal forests of East Africa ( Coastal forests of eastern Africa ) are a biogeographic region and one of the biodiversity hotspots on the African continent . The forests stretch in a narrow band along the coast of the Indian Ocean from southern Somalia in the north along the coast of Kenya and Tanzania to the mouth of the Limpopo River in southern Mozambique .

The WWF divides the region into two WWF ecoregions :

• Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic , which runs from southern Somalia, along the Kenyan coast to southern Tanzania and includes the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba .
• Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic , which stretches from southern Tanzania along the Mozambican coast to the mouth of the Limpopo.

plants

44 percent of the plant species in the coastal forests of East Africa occur worldwide only in this region and 40 percent are only found in a certain area in the forests ( forest patch ). There is a very small-scale endemism in the coastal forests of East Africa: Areas that are only 100 km apart show a difference in plant population of 80 percent.

Animals

The region is home to an abundance of vertebrate animals, such as three endemic primate species that are highly endangered and two endemic Galagos species . The two highly endangered primate species, the Tana colobus and the Tana mangabe , live on the Tana River , which runs through central Kenya . The pemban nectar bird (English Pemba Sunbird) ( Cinnyris pembae ) is named after the island of Pemba off Tanzania and was only discovered in 1905. The IUCN lists the pemban nectar bird as “Least Concern”. The bird is found exclusively in this ecoregion.

Danger

One of the main problems in the region is the clearing of forests for firewood in order to gain land for agricultural cultivation. The expansion of agriculture is the greatest threat to the coastal forests of East Africa. The region's ecosystems are also at great risk due to the soil quality that is relatively poor for agricultural use and the general trend of continuous population growth.

Web links

• Coastal Forests of Kenya and Tanzania (Tanzania Forest Conservation Group).
• Coastal Forests of East Africa (Conservation International). (engl.)
• Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic (World Wildlife Fund). (engl.)
• Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic (World Wildlife Fund). (engl.)
• African Wild Dog Conservancy's Biodiversity Hotspots Page. (engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://coastalforests.tfcg.org/ October 18, 2010
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. October 18, 2010