Main Article Content
Forest area, fragmentation and loss in the Eastern Arc Mountains: Implications for the conservation of biological diversity
Abstract
An understanding of forest area, fragmentation and loss is central to developing strategies to conserve biological diversity in the Eastern Arc Mountains. Using recent 1:250,000 land cover and use maps (Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, 1996) and 1:250,000 and 1:500,000 topographic maps, I examine natural forest area, fragmentation, and loss in the Eastern Arc Mountains. I estimate the maximum total area of natural forest, open as well as closed forest, in the Eastern Arc Mountains is 5,340 km2. The remaining natural forest in the Eastern Arc Mountains is highly fragmented. The median patch size is 10.2 km2, and the mean patch size is 58.0 km2. Based upon the estimates of various workers, approximately 1,447 km2 of closed forest remains in the Eastern Arc Mountains or 27 % of the remaining natural forest. Comparisons of the current to prehistoric forest cover suggest that 77 % of the original forest has been lost over the last approximately 2,000 years.
Journal of East African Natural History Vol. 87 (1&2) 1998: pp. 29-36
