East Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) contains 1,776 protected areas (including 186 “strict” protected areas) covering more than 27 percent of its terrestrial area.
East Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) contains 1,776 protected areas (including 186 “strict” protected areas) covering more than 27 percent of its terrestrial area. Researchers at UC Davis have now documented the extent to which this East African protected area network really protects wildlife and habitats.
According to their publication in the open-access journal Global Ecology and Conservation, 86% of ecoregions in East Africa have achieved the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 11 goal of protecting at least 10 percent of each ecoregion by 2020. However, three ecoregions (two in the deserts of northern Kenya and the coastal forests of southeastern Tanzania) are poorly represented with less than 10 percent of their area under some form of protection.
“While a 10 percent protection target may be an arbitrarily low bar, it does show that countries have made substantial progress in achieving the targets set by the international community,” said lead author Jason Riggio, a UC Davis postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology.
Read more at University of California – Davis
Photo: Sunset over Kitulo National Park in Tanzania, one of the first East African protected areas to be primarily established for the conservation of rare plants. CREDIT: Jason Riggio
