eastern arc mountains forests of tanzania - Campaign for the ...

Eastern Arc Mountains Forests of Tanzania
Nature Reserve (St John 2008), which abuts Udzungwa Mountains National Park, it will be part of the largest
forested block within the Udzungwa Mountains as well as the entire Eastern Arc Mountains system.
3.b Proposed Statement of Outstanding Universal Value
The Eastern Arc Mountains, encompassing an area of some 23,000 km 2 , are part of the Eastern Afromontane
hotspot, one of 34 of the world’s richest places for biodiversity that are under continuing extreme threat of loss of
their original vegetation. This arc of mountains is geologically ancient, dating back at least 30 million years and
possibly 100 million years, and individual blocks are isolated from each other, with the result that they have
played an important role as refugia for plants and animals, and as centres of speciation over the millennia.
The Eastern Arc Mountains and Forests of Tanzania property proposed for inscription on the World Heritage List
is a series of 9 protected areas within 6 of the 13 blocks that comprise the Eastern Arc Mountains, as follows:
Serial site Mountain Block
Amani Nature Reserve East Usambara
Nilo Nature Reserve East Usambara
Mkingu Proposed Nature Reserve Nguru
Chome Proposed Nature Reserve South Pare
Kilombero Nature Reserve Udzungwa
Udzungwa Mountains National Park Udzungwa
Uzungwa Scarp Proposed Nature Udzungwa
Uluguru Reserve Nature Reserve Uluguru
Magamba Proposed Nature Reserve West Usambara
These 9 sites encompass a total area of 451,365 ha, which represents approximately 20% of the Eastern Arc
Mountains and includes at least 50% of the remaining 3,500 km 2 of forest. The sites have been selected for
inclusion in the nomination as being, on the basis of current knowledge, universally outstanding examples of
evolutionary and biogeographical processes, as well as having a wealth of species of plants and animals
(vertebrates) that are endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains and in numerous cases endemic to an individual site
within the serial property.
This serial property is nominated on the basis of the following criteria:
Criterion (ix)
The property features important biological refugia, having numerous endemic taxa representing ancient
lineages that have survived millions of years of climatic fluctuations elsewhere on the African continent, as
well as being centres of more recent speciation and radiation. For example, all of the world’s African violet
(Saintpaulia) species are located in the forests of these mountains and many are endemic to the area.
DNA analysis has shown that the property provides a globally important record of the evolution of life on
earth, especially for ancient groups of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians having 30 million year old
and older radiations. Such evidence is based on there being at least 40 genera of plants and at least 6
genera of vertebrates that are endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains.
The endemism comprises both newly evolved species and ancient relicts that have their origins in
prehistoric times when a continuous swathe of forest was present across the whole of tropical Africa. This
unique biogeography of the Eastern Arc Mountains, and its disjunct nature in patches that are elevated
above the surrounding landscape, give patterns in species distributions and range that are akin to true
islands, causing it to be dubbed as 'The Galapagos of Africa'.
Criterion (x)
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism 75