Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya ...

Other coastal mineral resources of minor local importance include barites, galena, iron ore,gypsum and rubies. However all of these may be dwarfed by the development of titanium miningin Kenya. There are vast titanium reserves in the Magarini Sands belt, which stretches fromShimoni in the south coast to Mambrui in the north. Titanium has traditionally been used tomake a white pigment for paint, plastic and paper, but is increasingly in demand for applicationsin the armaments and space industries. Since 1995, a Canadian-based company (TiominResources Inc.) has been negotiating an agreement with the Kenyan government to minetitanium. Tiomin hopes to start its activities in the Kwale District and expects to generate around$47 million in annual cash flow.For the vast majority of people in the rural areas the major economic activity is subsistencefarming, supplemented by tree crops and fishing. There are large sisal plantations (e.g. Vipingoin Kenya) and tea estates (e.g. in Iringa and Kagera in Tanzania), which provide limited andpoorly paid jobs, but employment opportunities are few and the landless are in desperate straits.Cassava is the major agricultural crop, followed by maize, citrus, coconuts, mangoes andbananas (UNEP 1998). Cassava and maize are the staples everywhere and coconuts yield avariety of products from roofing material to palm wine. Other crops are locally important (e.g.coffee in Kwale District in Kenya). The fishing industry is constrained by the small area of thecontinental shelf next to the East African coast, the Southeast Monsoon (which restricts theactivities of small canoes) and low productivity due to nutrient deficient currents (UNEP 1998).Food security is not a problem within and around the high rainfall areas in the Eastern ArcMountains, but farmers to the north and north-west of Mombasa need emergency food supplieswhenever the rainfall is poor. Complaints of declining soil fertility are widespread.Other minor but widespread livelihoods are earned from artisan activities (wood carving,furniture making, boat building and handicrafts), service provision (e.g. kiosks for small scaletrading, sewing, electronic and other repairs) and the informal jua kali (Kiswahili for “fiercesun”) sector, which includes tin smiths, second hand clothing and cobblers.Infrastructure and Regional DevelopmentThere are two large cities within the hotspot, each of which has grown around an important andancient deep-water seaport on the Indian Ocean. Mombasa is Kenya’s second largest city, with apopulation of more than 700,000. Despite deteriorating equipment and problems withinefficiency and corruption, it remains one of the most modern ports in Africa. It has 21 berths,two bulk oil jetties and dry bulk wharves and handles all sizes of ships and cargo. It also haslarge warehousing (including bonded warehousing) and cold storage facilities. It is connected toNairobi and thence inland to the land locked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and theDemocratic Republic of Congo by both road and rail. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the Mombasa-Nairobi road was in a very poor state but it is now mostly in good condition. Other roads fromMombasa, south to the border and north past Malindi are paved but have rough stretches. Therailway connects Mombasa to Nairobi and to Kisumu on Lake Victoria, but it has suffered frompoor maintenance. There is an excellent international airport in Mombasa (Moi InternationalAirport) and domestic air services to Malindi on the north coast and Diani on the south coast.36