Guidebook to Amani - MWUCE

INTRODUCTION
THE EAST USAMBARA MOUNTAINS
Location
The East Usambara Mountains are located in Tanga region in North-East Tanzania and
form part of the Eastern Arc Mountains (see map 1 and map 3). These consist of five major
mountain blocks, including the Amani range in the south which is the largest (see map 2).
The East Usambaras are separated from West Usambaras by the 4km-wide valley of
Lwengera River (see fig.9 on page 38), which flows southwards to join Pangani River.
Biodiversity
The forests of the East Usambaras are a globally known biodiversity 'hotspot' among centres
of diversity (Myers 1988, WWF & IUCN 1994): a biodiversity hotspot is a region with
many endemic species. This biodiversity has been compared to that of the Galapagos
Islands in the Pacific Ocean (Rogers and Homewood 1982, Kingdom 1990), hence the
area has been nick-named 'Galapagos of Africa'. Finke, J. (2003:361) puts it succinctly:
'East Usambara's rainforests contain well over 2000 vascular plant species,
over a quarter of which are found nowhere else in the world as are sixteen of
East Usambara's 230 different tree species. The proportion of unique species
amongst animals is even more astounding, ranging from ten to sixty per cent
depending on family and genera.'
These forests, with trees which can reach heights of over 60m., form the catchment for
Sigi River (see map 3 and fig. 9 on page 38 ).
Conservation
Several national and International initiatives have been taken to conserve the biodiversity of
East Usambaras, after a long period of large-scale forest clearing to create coffee and tea
plantations since the end of the nineteenth century and large-scale timber logging between
1950s and 1980s (Atampugre 1990, Iversen 1991, Schulman et al.1998).
Such initiatives include: The East Usambara Conservation and Agricultural Development
Project (EUCADEP) which later on became the East Usambara Conservation and
Development Project (EUCDP). The project aimed at supporting conservation efforts by
developing local people's livelihoods e.g. fish ponds, cash crop cultivation, farm forestry,
tree planting and was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
Development between 1987 and 1997 with financial support from the EU and technical
assistance of IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature, now known as World
Conservation Union (Sjöholm, H. et al. 2001).
The East Usambara Catchment Forest Project (EUCFP) was run in two phases i.e. Phase
I; 1990-1994 and Phase II; 1995-1998. The project focused on protecting water sources;
establishing and protecting forest reserves; sustaining villager's benefits from the forest,
rehabilitating the Amani Botanical Garden and establishing Amani Nature Reserve.
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