serikali ya mapinduzi zanzibar care tanzania and department

ancestors in the mountain heathland or some relatives on Madagascan coastal heath
land, has the exclusive power of allowing only a few other individual species or none
at all. This is known as “Competitive Exclusion Principle” (or Gause’s Principle).
That is why it is has very low species richness. Ngezi Forest Reserve is also centre of
the endemic species of Chrysalidocarpus pembanus, which represents a remarkable
outlier of a typical Madagascar palm genus (Dransfield 1986). Burgess et al. (2000)
has categorized Ngezi Forest Reserve as a high priority site having over four plants
and over six animal endemic species as a criterion for its conservation.
2.9 Fauna
Few mediums to large animals exist in Ngezi Vumawimbi forest. Among the
mammals the vervet monkeys, hyraxes, bats, black rats are the most
abundant/commonly seen animals. Ocassionally the Zanzibar red colobus may be
sighted in part of the forest. Sightings of the Pemba Blue duiker are rare and the wild
boar is rarely sighted. Many birds occur in the forest though not as reach as other
comparable forests in the coastal belt. There are many snakes, lizards, geckos and
skinks. A number of amphibians occur in the forest, marshes and swamps and
possibility of discovering more species is high. Fish in the waters of Ngezi are
common ones reported in other places on the islands. In all cases observations and
reports suggest a decline in population numbers of animals including endemic or near
endemic species and sub species of Pemba.
2.10 Land tenure, landuse, and habitats
The issue of land tenure on Zanzibar is complex. Though the land was nationalised
soon after the Zanzibar revolution in 1964, several tenure systems exist within the
islands. With nationalisation of land people had the right to own and sell only crops
and structures located on a piece of land but could not sell land because it belongs to
the State. In villages people may own land under customary law. There is also land;
"wakf" which is dedicated specifically for religious use and no one including the
Government could use it for a different purpose.
According to Abdullah at al. (1996), the whole northwestern tip of the peninsula was
gazzetted as a reserve in 1968. However local people traditionally consider that the
villagers own the land. The present situation is obviously due to the fact that local
people did not accept the gazzetment and in the absence of law enforcement they
continue living and utilizing the resources in the gazzetted area.
Most of the northwestern tip of the peninsula has been cleared of forest and turned
into agricultural land, over the course of time. At present the only forest covered part
of this large reserve is located immediately north of ngezi. This area called
Vumawimbi forest is the main source of several forest products for the surrounding
villages as well as an important grazing area for their cattle. The forest was exploited
for timber until 1995 as well but commission of natural resources has prohibited that
practice.
The other areas surrounding Ngezi are mostly under intensive cultivation. In fact the
western side of the reserve, the Makangale area, is one of the most important food
production areas on the whole of Pemba. The main crops are cassava, sweet potatoes
and coconuts but also several species of fruits are grown. The farmers either own the
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