Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report - Biodiversity Foundation for Africa

Miombo Ecoregion Report, page 62
some community-based conservation programmes in place. Tourism potentials are high, although
the area is remote.
24. ITIGI THICKET
A small area of the central Tanzanian plateau between Tabora and Dodoma around the towns of
Itigi and Muhanga. It lies at the headwater of the Msuguluda and Mulambi rivers on what
appears to be an outcrop of Karoo sediments. The area forms part of what should be a larger
conservation priority area extending southwards incorporating the Rungwa River Game Reseve
and Ruaha National Park with their large populations of large mammals, especially elephant.
However, as these areas comprise Acacia–Commiphora woodland and fall outside the Miombo
Ecoregion, only the small area of unique thicket is included here. The vegetation is an almost
unique and very localised thicket/dry forest type owing to an impervious hardpan in the soil.
A number of endemic plants or species of restricted distribution are found (e.g. Bussea
massaiensis, Baphia burtii, Pseudoprosopis fischeri in the thickets, and Nymphaea stuhlmannii in
pans). The only other area with similar vegetation is by Lake Mweru Wantipa in Zambia (Area
20). Elephants are attracted to permanent water pools in the dry season, and a number of elephant
move seasonally northwest from Ruaha/Rungwe through the Itigi area towards the Ugalla River
Game Reserve (Area 22). The thickets are on an important route for migratory birds. There is a
high diversity of bee species. There is little published data available on the area.
No part of the Itigi thicket is protected, although the large protected areas of Ruaha National Park
and Rungwa River Game Reserve lie to south.
The thicket vegetation is under severe threat from clearance and fragmentation. Local people
depend on it for building material and fuelwood, and the area is surrounded by cultivation.
Movement corridors for elephant and other large mammals are being increasingly blocked. There
is no formal conservation plan available.
25. SELOUS / KILOMBERO
A large area in southeastern Tanzania centred on the Selous Game Reserve, including the
Kibasera swamps, the Kilombero valley, and the basins of the Great Ruaha, Rufiji, Kilombero,
Luwego and Matandu rivers. It is the largest protected area in Africa and a major wilderness area.
Vegetation is mostly dry miombo woodland, with patches of dry forest, Acacia and riverine
woodland, grassland and dambos.
There is high plant species diversity (2065 species listed) with around 13 endemics. The adjacent
Uzungwa mountains, although outside the ecoregion, support a large number of endemics. Large
mammal species diversity is high, with movement to the Niassa Game Reserve (Area 26) of
elephant, buffalo and wildebeest. Black rhino and wild dog are still found. An isolated population
of puku are found in the Kilombero wetlands. The endemic Iringa red colobus and Sanje
mangabey monkeys are confined to upland forests on the Uzungwa mountains on the border of
the ecoregion, which are better treated under the Afromontane or East African Forest Ecoregion.
Over 427 bird species have been recorded, including 52 raptors. Birds endemic to the Kilombero
area are the Kilombero Social Weaver, and three undescribed species of Cisticola. There a few
Important Bird Areas and Endemic Bird Areas. There is also a rich herpetofauna with 100 reptile
and 50 amphibian species, including 11 endemic reptiles and 4 amphibians in the broad Selous-
Rovuma region. One endemic fish is found in the Kilombero basin. The forests and woodlands of
the Uzungwa mountains support a high butterfly diversity and a number of endemics, but this
belongs to the Afromontane fauna and is best regarded as part of that ecoregion.