The Udzungwa Mountains

The Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania are an area of global importance for biodiversity conservation. The key aspects of this biodiversity importance can be summarized as follows:

• With an overall area of about 10,000 km², the Udzungwas contain the largest and biologically richest forest blocks of the Eastern Arc Mountains, which is an internationally recognized area for biological endemism (see map). In addition, there is continuous forest cover on the eastern slopes from 300 m to over 2000 m a.s.l. which is unique in East Africa.
• The Udzungwas support two endemic taxa of primates (Udzungwa red colobus Procolobus gordonorum and Sanje mangabey Cercocebus galeritus sanjei) and one near-endemic genus and species (kipunji Rungwecebus kipunji), the two former taxa being listed in the IUCN Red List as "Endangered" and the latter proposed as "Critically Endangered". In addition, at least nine other species of primate are present in the Udzungwas. As such, the Udzungwas may well be the most important single site in Africa for the conservation of primates, and is probably the most important single site in Tanzania for the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity.
• Current knowledge indicates that the Udzungwa Mountains contain 36 species of Eastern Arc endemic and near-endemic trees, among the highest scores for sites in the Eastern Arc Mountains.
• A number of new, unique vertebrate species have been discovered in the last 15 years, including the aforementioned kipunji, the Udzungwa forest partridge Xenoperdix udzungwensis, rufous-winged sunbird Cinnyris rufipennis, a Congosorex shrew, an newly described giant elephant-shrew Rhynchocyon udzungwensis, and several amphibians and reptiles.
• A unique community of forest antelope has been studied in recent years and includes the largest population of the Tanzanian endemic and IUCN-Endangered Abbott's duiker Cephalophus spadix, one of the rarest duiker species.
• The Udzungwas provide invaluable ecosystem services to both the regional and national communities, especially water catchment which through hydro-electric production creates one-third of the electricity in the country.