serikali ya mapinduzi zanzibar care tanzania and department

His advance from hominid origins has brought mankind to near-dominance of the
world as well as trying to understand it. Scientists now say we are in a new stage of
the Earth's history, the Anthropocene Epoch, when human species has become the
globe's principal force. In addition several eminent scientists are concerned that we
have become too successful - that the unprecedented human pressure on the Earth's
ecosystems threatens our future as a species. We now confront problems more
intractable than any previous generation, some of them at the moment apparently
insoluble.
As part of its strategy to conserve the biological diversity on the islands the
Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar through the Department of Commercial
Crops, Fruits, and Forestry in collaboration with CARE Zanzibar intends to enhance
the protection of Ngezi –Vumawimbi forest reserves in Pemba in order to protect the
habitat and species contained therein. This initiative is important due to potential
threats facing the plant and animal species and the forest in general. However, this is
only possible when species present in the area together with their conservation status
is known. To provide sound biological data on which to base conservation activities
the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and CARE Zanzibar initiated an inventory
of the Ngezi - Vumawimbi Forest Reserves. The main areas of interest for the survey
were on vegetation, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and selected groups of
invertebrates.
1.1 Overview of Tanzania biodiversity
Tanzania has a rich and diverse spectrum of animals and plants including a wide
variety of endemic species and subspecies. The diversity and degree of endemism in
Tanzania is fairly high, for example, of the 18 primate species, 5 are endemic, there
are 30 antelope species and 2 are endemic, and 60 species of reptiles are endemic out
of the 227 species present in the country. There are also many other species of fish,
birds, amphibians and plants unique to our country (Wildlife Division 1998). There
are over 600 endemic plant species in Tanzania most of them in the eastern arc
forests/coastal forests. There are other species still unknown to science and are
awaiting discovery particularly in the eastern arc mountains, Zanzibar and Pemba
islands.
Within the coastal forests biodiversity hotspots in East Africa, the importance of
Zanzibar and Pemba islands has long been recognised. Pemba has been separated
from the mainland Tanzania for about 10 million years. During this time species have
been evolving separately from their mainland counterparts. This has resulted in the
presence of a number of new and endemic species and sub species of both flora and
fauna. This inventory was an attempt to explore areas and taxa which may have been
missed in previous studies (by various groups and individuals). Apparently very little
research has been done in Pemba and there is not much documentation involving
biological diversity aspects. This means little is known on the past status of flora and
fauna of Pemba. The occurrence and conservation status of a number of already
known species was assessed during the survey.
Tanzania has completed a country study on biodiversity as one its obligations under
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). On the other hand, a number of
studies have been undertaken on the flora and fauna of Unguja and Pemba. While
some studies were general surveys covering broad areas others were focused on Ngezi
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