SUPER SHIMBA HILLS
FOREST RESERVE

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Coastweek - -  Forest area of the Shimba Hills Reserve.
Early morning view towards 'Elephant Lookout'
 from Sable Valley. PHOTO - COURTESY: SABINE BAER

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KENYA SOUTH COAST FOREST OFFICIALLY
DECLARED WORLD 'BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT'

NOTES FROM THE SHIMBA SUPPORT GROUP NEWSLETTER

Coastweek - -  Shimba Hills, South of Mombasa, has been officially declared a 'Biodiversity Hotspot' - one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots.

It is now recognised as Kenya's premier area for plant diversity and it holds more than half of Kenya's rare trees.

Shimba Support Group Chair man Daniel Stiles reports that although the Arabuko Sokoke Forest near Watamu has received far greater attention than the Shimba forest, Shimba's far exceeds Arabuko Sokoke as an area of plant diversity.

According to the latest Shimba Support Group newsletter:

Quentin Luke has recently published the results of almost twenty years of work studying the plants of the Shimba Hills.

Published in the Journal of East African Natural History, Volume 94, number 1, the annotated check list is available on Nature Kenya's Web site:

http://www.naturekenya.org/  

Luke worked on the WWF-funded Coast Forest Survey 1988-1991 and then directed the WWF-Department of Inter-national Development (UK) Coastal Forest Conservation Unit, implemented by the National Museums of Kenya, 1992-2001.

He made use of all previous plant studies of the area as well, starting with T. Wakefield's work around 1860 and several others subsequently, thus the botanical information is comprehensive.

This work resulted in the inclusion of the Shimba Hills forest as part of the Eastern Arc and East African Coastal Forests Biodiversity Hotspot - one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots.

The checklist records a total of 1,396 plants that are indigenous or are considered naturalised within the Shimba Hills.

The exotic crop and ornamental plants are also listed, though this list is incomplete.

This total represents 44 per cent of the coastal flora and 21 per cent of the current estimate for Kenya's flora of 6,500 species.

Some 276 of the species are potentially threatened and 62 are rare in a global sense, thus of high priority for conservation.

Although the Arabuko Sokoke Forest near Watamu has received far greater attention than the Shimba forest, Luke stresses that the Shimba's far exceeds Arabuko Sokoke as an area of plant diversity, and it holds more than half of Kenya's rare trees.

He concludes that the Shimba Hills is Kenya's premier area for plant diversity.

The report draws attention to the threat posed to this precious forest by elephants, whose population has grown to unsustainable limits.

This checklist should stimulate a reassessment of the Shimba Hills National Reserve as a conservation area.

Although not impressive in terms of faunal biodiversity, its critical importance for endemic and rare Kenyan plants should bring about the Government according it increased conservation resources and attention.

The SSG Chairman concludes: I would also like to take this opportunity to thank two generous sponsors of SSG:

Eden Wildlife Trust has sponsored SSG with a further KSh.100,000/=, and member Max Voegeli has donated KSh.104,484/= to assist SSG with implementing its projects.

SEE ALSO:

   A RARE PLANT 'FIND' IN THE SHIMBA HILLS RESERVE

   SOME WILD FLOWERS OF THE RESERVE

   BUTTERFLIES OF THE SHIMBA HILLS

   SHIMBA HILLS CONSERVATION AREA - FACTS AND FIGURES

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