Analysis of Civil Engineering Surveying In Mountainous Region

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Executive Summary

The Eastern Arc Mountains are renown in Africa for high concentrations of endemic species of animals and plants. Thirteen separate mountain blocks comprise the Eastern Arc, supporting around 3300 km2 of sub-montane, montane and upper montane forest, less than 30% of the estimated original forested area. At least 96 vertebrate species are endemic, split as follows: 10 mammal, 19 bird, 29 reptile and 38 amphibian species. This includes four endemic or nearly endemic species of primate - the Sanje Mangabey, the Iringa Red Colobus, the Mountain Galago and the new Kipunji monkey that forms its own monotypic genus. A further 71 vertebrate species are near-endemic. At least 800 vascular plant species are endemic, almost 10% of these being trees. These endemics include the majority of the species of African violet - Saintpaulia, a well-known flowering plant inWestern households.

An additional 32 species of bryophytes are also endemic. Many hundreds of invertebrates are also likely to be endemic, with data for butterflies, millipedes and dragonflies indicating potential trends in importance. Seventy-one of the endemic or near-endemic vertebrates are threatened by extinction (8 critical, 27 endangered, 36 vulnerable), with an additional seven wide ranging threatened species. Hundreds of plant species are also threatened.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW3

2.1 The Eastern Arc3

2.2. Forest categorisation3

2.3. Reserved Areas6

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY8

3.1. Remaining habitat9

References11

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The phrase 'Eastern Arc Mountains', describing a chain of mountains starting in southern Kenya and progressing through eastern Tanzania, first appeared in print in 1985, together with a map of the area. In subsequent years, biological data on the importance of the Eastern Arc Mountains have been increasingly refined and summarised, first by Baker (2001), and later by Bayes (1998) and Balmford (2001). These and other data have been used in several global analyses of biodiversity priority to show that the Eastern Arc Mountains rank among the most important areas of the world for the conservation of endemic birds, endemic plants, and a combined set of taxonomic groups (Baker, 2001, pp.96-105).

The Eastern Arc is also home to four endemic or near-endemic species of primates - the Sanje Mangabey Cercocebus sanjei, Iringa Red Colobus Procolobus gordonorum, the Mountain Galago Galagoides orinus and the new Kipunji monkey Rungwecebus kipunji that is the sole representative of its genus - and most of the known species of African violet - Saintpaulia spp. Attempts to factor threat into assessments of conservation priority across theworld and across Africa have also shown that the Eastern Arc is amongst the most threatened regions of global biodiversity significance and one where the extinction risk to the fauna and flora is intense, and increasing (Balmford, 2001, pp.2616-2619).

A number of studies have also looked at patterns and priorities among the 13 separate mountain blocks within the Eastern Arc, and some have looked at priorities within single blocks. These studies concluded that some of the blocks are more important than others, with the East Usambaras, Ulugurus and Udzungwas consistently being assessed as the most important ...