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Colorado State University

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Program Name

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

Abstract

Off the coast of Tanzania, in East Africa, the island of Pemba was once covered in pristine forest despite having a small, agriculturally-based human population. Beginning around 1840, however, the island began to be deforested on a large scale for colonial plantations of cash crops such as cloves and rubber as well as for small-scale farms and firewood. Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve covers about 1,440 hectares and is all that remains of these once vast forests. The reserve was officially designated in 1957 but timber extraction and exploitation there continued until the late 1980s. In the early 1970s, a large section of the reserve was clear-cut and replanted with an exotic tree species that later was revealed to be extremely invasive. Extirpation efforts began in earnest a few decades later but no survey has been done since 2006 to determine the species composition of this section of the reserve. The purpose of this study is to perform a survey of trees in this disturbed area as well as in an adjacent primary forest area of the reserve and to use the collected data to evaluate regenerative progress in the forest. This summary and the subsequent recommendations will then be sent to the government of Zanzibar to aid in their decision making.

Disciplines

African Studies | Environmental Health and Protection | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Sciences

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