Eastern Africa Coastal Forest Programme: Regional Workshop ...

Updating Information on the Coastal Forests
The Eastern African Coastal Forests Ecoregion Planning Workshop provided a forum
to update the existing information on the distribution and status of these forests. The
base data were derived from Burgess and Clarke (2000) and included:
- A list of the forest location, area, status, altitude and threats
- A list of the species of plants endemic to the coastal region containing the eastern
African coastal forests. Not all the plants are restricted to the closed canopy
forests, but the majority of them are.
- A list of the species of vertebrate animals endemic to the coastal region. Not all
the animals are restricted to the closed canopy forests, but the majority of them
are.
- Maps of the position of protected areas (including Forest Reserves) across the
region (kindly provided by the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre in
Cambridge).
The data available at the start of the workshop were poor for Mozambique and none
were available in a spatial format and thus no maps could be produced. No vegetation
map covering the entire coastal area was available and hence it was not possible to
look at the representation of vegetation types within protected areas along the coastal
strip of eastern Africa. This is something that should be done in the future.
Forest Data
National working groups checked and updated the information provided on the
coastal forests of their countries (see Table 1 and Annex J). In addition to checking
the details of location, area, status (gazetted or not) and altitude, the groups also
added columns on the vegetation type of the site and the level of threat that it faces.
Kenya. In Kenya the updating was relatively minor reflecting the fact that Kenya has
a short coastline which is mainly quite accessible and there have been a number of
forest survey and mapping projects over the past 10 years. A total of 103 forests
covering a total area of 787 km 2 were identified. More forests covering a larger total
area are now known in Kenya when compared to 1992. This is entirely due to the
results of new field work being available. In fact when comparisons are made
between the same forests in 1992 and 2002 there is a decline of forest area over the
10 year period. This indicates that forest loss is continuing at many sites, especially
close to the large urban centre of Mombasa.
Tanzania. In Tanzania the updating required was more extensive and some gaps in
remain, especially for southernmost Tanzania and inland to the Selous Game Reserve
where the presence of forest patches is poorly documented. Some data were not
available at the workshop and updating was completed required back in Tanzania. A
total of 179 forests covering a total area of at least 692 sq km were identified in
Tanzania. At sites where forest area data are available for both 1992 and 2002, many
show a decline in forest area over this period. The declines are most notable close to
Dar es Salaam where intense pressure for natural resources has resulted in the loss of
forest cover and its conversion to charcoal and to farmland.
Mozambique. Data for Mozambique were poor prior to this workshop. Mozambican
participants at the workshop pointed out that they still have not visited many parts of
their country to investigate the vegetation and species composition, particularly in the
northern coastal regions where much coastal forest is believed to remain. However,
considerably refined data on the extent of forest in Mozambique was provided. These
Eastern Africa Coastal Forests - 15 - Workshop Report, Nairobi February 4-7 2002