EASTERN AFROMONTANEBIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT

(KENYA)

Prepared by:MALINAO, CLIENT WILLIAM M.

ALFORTE, RONEL

• Everyone depends on Earth‘s ecosystems and their life-sustaining benefits, such as clean air, fresh water and healthy soils.

• Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) provides grants for nongovernmental and other private organizations to help protect biodiversity hotspots, Earth‘s most biologically rich and threatened areas.

EASTERN AFROMONTANE

1 million square kilometers

1,017806 Square kilometer-MAIN PART OF THE HOTSPOT

7000 kilometers

• The Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot stretches over a curving arc of widely scattered but biogeographically similar mountains, covering an area of more than 1 million square kilometers and running over a distance of more than 7,000 kilometers.

• The main part of the hotspot‘s 1,017,806 square kilometers is made up of three (the Eastern Arc, Mountains and Southern Rift, the Albertine Rift, the Ethiopian Highlands)

Main part of the HOTSPOT

• The Eastern Arc Mountains and Southern Rift,• The Albertine Rift

• The Ethiopian Highlands

• The Eastern Afromontane Hotspot is one of the biological wonders of the world, with globally significant levels of diversity and endemism. Its ecosystems provide tens of millions of people with freshwater and other ecosystem services that are essential to their survival.

• the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot is enormously important for people.

• BENEFITS • it provides water for vast, enormous, huge areas.The

Great Rift lakes make this hotspot a phenomenally important region for freshwater fish diversityThis rich biological diversity in the hotspot is mirrored by the massive ecosystem services that it Provides.

The Eastern Arc Mountains

Southern Rift

The Albertine Rift

The Ethiopian Highlands

The Water Towers of Kenya

ENDEMIC FLORA

FREESIA

SAINT PAULIA

Streptocarpus (AFRICAN

PRIMROSES)

SENECIO KENIODENDRON

(MT. KENYA)

ENDEMIC FAUNASharpe’s Long

claw

Apalisfuscigularis

• THREATS TO THE HOTSPOT• Expansion and Intensification of Agriculture and Forestry; Development

of AquacultureExpansion of agriculture has been the major driver of habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation in the hotspot• Threat from FireAnother threat in the hotspot, particularly associated with agriculture, is fire.47 Farmers use fire to clear fields prior to planting and, given that most of the land outside protected areas is under agricultural use, fires pose a significant threat. • Threats from Fisheries and AquacultureOverfishing is believed to pose a threat to fish stocks at all these lakes, and there are problems with pollution from raw sewage. • Overuse of Biological ResourcesPeople living in and adjacent (neigboring) to the hotspot rely on many forest and grassland resources for subsistence and for commercial gain. Particularly important is the use of timber for construction, furniture and firewood, and charcoal for cooking and heating. Forest areas are also important for hunting, as a source of medicinal plants, Logging and wood harvesting are considered major problems in all the hotspot countries The primary threat to the biodiversity of the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot is habitat loss, due to conversion of land for agriculture, plantations and commercial estates, as well as logging. Other threats include fires, mining, infrastructure development gathering of firewood, and collection of plants for medicinal use.

@ PRESENT