RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN THE SOUTHERN HIGHLAND GRASSLANDS OF TANZANIA   

Denham’s Bustard Blue Swallow Wattled Crane (already extirpated !!!)

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and

IUCN status:

Near Threatened Vulnerable Vulnerable

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Churring Cisticola Mountain Marsh Widowbird

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and

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Short-tailed Pipit Locust Finch

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and

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Pale-crowned Cisticola Ayres’ Cisticola Fülleborn’s Longclaw (near endemic) Uhehe Fiscal (endemic to Tanzania)

near endemic, data deficient near endemic, data deficient

2 more that have restricted ranges and small populations

both are data deficient

4 more that are restricted to high altitude grasslands

Neil & Liz Baker

AND THE RARE PALEARCTIC MIGRANTS  The three globally threatened species  Pallid Harrier  Corncrake  Lesser Kestrel 

IUCN status:

Near Threatened Near Threatened Vulnerable

and

 Montagu’s Harrier

listed under the CMS.

 These species are all subject to environmental safeguards under the European Birds Directive and various international conventions. These conventions apply to any investment by European countries, especially if Government funds are provided.

THE RELEVANT BINDING CONVENTIONS  

The EU Birds Directive gives the strictest protection to all 3 globally threatened species, all of which are listed in Annex 1. http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:020:0007:0025:EN:PDF

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The UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) http://www.cms.int/documents/index.htm and two of its daughter agreements:

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in the case of Corncrake, the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) http://www.unep-aewa.org/documents/agreement_text/agree_main.htm

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in the case of the raptors, the new Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia http://www.cms.int/species/raptors/BoP_MOU_&_ActionPlan.htm

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Tanzania is party to CMS and AEWA (but not yet the raptor MOU) and bound by their obligations as are all EU member states and the European Union in its own right.

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Lesser Kestrel and Blue Swallow are listed on CMS Appendix 1 Endangered Migratory Species (strictest protection) and Corncrake and the harriers are on Appendix II Migratory species conserved through Agreements.

Blue Swallow Hirundo atrocaerulea 

One of Africa’s rarest birds

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Virtually extirpated from South Africa due to pine plantations in natural grassland (Evans et al. 2002. Blue Swallow Single Species Action Plan).

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Probably gone from the Vipya Plateau in Malawi due to pine plantations (Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett 2006).

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Under real pressure in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe due to pine plantations (Childs & Mundy in Fishpool & Evans 2001).

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Under real pressure on its wintering grounds in western Kenya due to sugar cane and local agriculture (Ndanganga 2007).

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and

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Under real pressure in its last remaining stronghold, in Tanzania, due to even more pine plantations and bottom line accounting (Baker & Baker 2002).

so rare there are very few photographs !

The global range of the Blue Swallow

These hillsides look good but all those small grey dots are freshly cut proteas, the land being prepared for plantation forestry.

© Liz Baker

Denham’s Bustard Neotis denhami

This bird has been hunted to extinction throughout much of its former range in West Africa were it is now very rare. In East Africa the dwindling population is now confined to islands of highland grassland, there are most probably fewer than 200 birds remaining.

© Mike Webster

Denham’s habitat in the Kipengere’s at 2,500m on a private farm now for sale !

© Liz Baker

It’s not just Denham’s the flowers here are of world renown.

© Liz Baker

Mountain Marsh Widowbird Euplectes psammocromius

endemic to the montane grasslands of northern Malawi and the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

© David Krantz

Mountain Marsh Widowbird global range

MMW breeding habitat note the plantation and the agriculture

© Neil Baker

Catching MMW at dusk and on wet dawns. These field and laboratory studies have only just begun by Prof. Staffan Andersen and students from Göteborg University, Sweden in collaboration with SUA, Morogoro.

© Jenny Olsson

It’s not just the big players, there are many hundreds of smaller plantations, school fees and hospital bills for future Tanzanians.

© Neil Baker

Hello My name is Jimmy Mushi. I’m a computer technician from Moshi living and working in Iringa. My work takes me to Njombe so I have often driven through the pine plantations of Mufindi and Njombe Districts. Asking friends about these trees I was told they are a good investment, they do not require the hard work that other farming requires and they fetch a good price. Some friends have invested in them for their children’s education. I asked around and was directed to Kidabaga village. I talked to the village people, found some land for sale and with the authority of the village chairman I bought nearly 100 acres and on this I have planted 90,000 eucalyptus. About 20% of these have been stolen and now I have a dispute with a company which claims to have bought this land from District Government. This dispute is now in court. Until my friend Mr Baker mentioned it I did not know anything about “biodiversity” or conservation or that there were rare creatures in this area. I was not taught about them at school. No one at the village mentioned this to me. I’m just doing this for my future and my families future.

it’s not just the birds, we know something of the plants (Eulophia thomsonii ) but virtually nothing of the invertebrates of which many will be endemic

© Jenny Olsson

Comment from Colin Congdon, butterfly expert and long term resident of Mufindi (he worked on the tea plantations).

There are 2 sorts of grassland around here. 1. The short (under 1m) grassland in from the Mufindi Escrpment - the Sao Hill grasslands. 2. The tall (Hyparrhenia) grasslands below the Mufindi escarpment. Type 2 grasslands are as far as I know of little interest to anybody, except perhaps for the occasional tree or shrub - mostly Parinari curatellifola. They are of enormous extent, from the foot of the escarpment half way to Songea. Large areas are currently being planted to pines. And I mean LARGE. Thousands of hectares a year. But as I say, nothing interesting in them from a butterfly point of view, as far as we know. Type 1 grasslands are a different matter altogether. They are at a lower level than the Kitulo and the Nyika Plateau, but are floristically rich. When I first came to Mufindi in 1955, most of the land within the Mufindi Loop Road was owned by a Greek named Masada. He was an absentee owner who did nothing with the land. The (colonial) government used that as a pretext to revoke his lease and hand the land over to the Forestry Department. Large areas of these ancient grasslands were then planted to pines. If any EIA was carried out, we know nothing about it. These grasslands used to host flocks of Denham's bustards - I remember Frank Godwin going after them with a 9mm rifle!

What is important now??

Butterflies. There are 2 species of butterfly which rely on the burnt grasslands. They emerge end August and fly for a very short period. The caterpillars feed for a short while on herbs which come up after the fires, after which for the rest of the year they go down into ants' nests, and feed on the ant brood until next year. They are Euchrysops unigemmata, known from our grasslands and the Nyika Plateau in Malawi, and Aloeides aranda, a fairly widespread species. These two species are now reduced to hanging on in the forestry firebreaks. Much more important is a species of Alaena. This is new to science, and is known only from a patch of grassland about 5km along the road from Mafinga towards Madibira. Caterpillars feed on Cyanobacteria (blue-greeen algae) on termite mounds in the grass. The area is less than 1 km2 and part has already been planted to gums. If this butterfly were a bird or a frog the whole international conservation community would be trying to protect it. It is possible that there are other colonies of the butterfly, but unless these are found and protected, I fear the species is doomed. Also of interest is Siphonochilus sp. from the foot of Irundi Hill. (Species 'D' in Kew). It is a small and very pretty blue flowered ginger. It was originally collected by Mary Richards, and I re-collected it for Kew a number of years ago (1985). It is a very small species, and its habitat is short grass. The area has now been overtaken by volunteer pines, and I fear the plant may be extinct, as this is the only known locality for it. Colin

Herpetological importance of the southern Udzungwa primary grasslands Dr. Michele Menegon Museo Tridentino Scienze Naturali Sezione di Zoologi dei vertebrati Trento. Italy

A preliminary list of the herpetofaunal community of the grasslands area between Bomalang’ombe and Mapanda villages has been compiled on the ground of field activities carried out between 1998 and 2005 by few researches.

Over 35 species of Amphibians and Reptiles were recorder for two areas, among them there’s a newly described species of grassland specialised lizard (Tetradactylus udzungwensis) that is strictly endemic of the area and very few specimens are known to date.

The site at Bomalang’ombe village

The endemic lizard Tetradactylus udzungwensis The site at Mapanda village

The frog Mertensophryne uzunguensis is also endemic of the open grasslands of the southern Udzungwa and Ukinga mountains.

The near endemic reptile Cordylus ukingensis is known for the grassland area around Kibengu village and the type locality on the Ukinga Mountains

Ellenberger seps is an highly specialised legless lizard reaching it’s northern distribution limit at the southern Udzungwa grasslands.

Chamaeleo goetzei is a specialised montane grassland chameleon known for the grasslands of southern Udzungwa, Southern Highlands and Nyika plateau only

The presence of highly specialized grass-dwelling and endemic species suggests that, at least, some of the montane grasslands of the Udzungwa plateau have a long evolutionary history and they should be considered the last remnant of an environment of great conservation importance

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Comment from William Stanley, small mammal expert, Field Museum, Chicago

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The different habitats of the Udzungwa Mountains are unique in many respects. One of the most intriguing aspects of this montane ecosystem is that many different microhabitats contain endemic species that are found no where else in the world, AND no where else in the Udzungwa Mountains. Vertebrate examples include the Udzungwa Forest Partridge (Xenoperdix udzungwensis), found only in West Kilombero Forest Reserve, and not areas such as Udzungwa Scarp (Dinesen et al., 1994); Phillips Congo shrew (Congosorex phillipsorum), found only in Ndundulu and Nyumbanitu Forests, and not any other forests in Udzungwas (Stanley et al., 2005); and the Kihansi Spray Toad (Nectophrynoides asperginus), which occurred only along the Kihansi River, and not in any of the neighboring streams (Poynton et al., 1998). These taxa are not only unique-many are ancient forms with affinities to very distant groups. For example, the closest relative of Congosorex phillipsorum is in the Congo Basin, and that of the Udzungwa Partridge is in Asia! Thus, the Udzungwa habitats represent some of the most important in eastern Africa, both in terms of endemic organisms and biogeography. Montane grasslands of the Udzungwas have not yet been adequately surveyed from a small mammal perspective, but inevitably will have endemic populations of shrews and/or mice. Faunal surveys of very similar habitats in neighboring massifs serve as an example. A recent survey of a similar grassland habitat in the Kitulo plateau documented the existence of a new form of climbing mouse (Dendromus), and one that is quite different than any other forms of this mouse (W. T. Stanley and T. Davenport, unpubl. data). A new species of shrew (Myosorex) was recently described from the grasslands of the Nyika Plateau in Malawi (Kerbis Peterhans et al., 2008). Human alteration of these types (or any other) of natural microhabitats in the Udzungwa Mountains represent a severe threat to a very unique and important fauna that is found no where else in the world. References: Kerbis Peterhans J. C., Hutterer R., Kaliba P., & Mazibuko L. (2008). First record of Myosorex (Mammalia: Soricidae) from Malawi with description as a new species, Myosorex gnoskei. Journal of East African Natural History 97: 19–32. Poynton, J. C., Howell, K. M., Clarke, B. T. & Lovett, J. C. (1998). A critically endangered new species of Nectophrynoides (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Kihansi Gorge, Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. African Journal of Herpetology 47: 59-67. Stanley, W. T., Rogers, M. A., & Hutterer R. (2005). A new species of Congosorex from the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania, with significant biogeographical implications. Journal of Zoology 265: 269280.

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HI all

For those of you who may have missed this, some very valid points. Especially in regard to co2e sequestration, rural employment and of course revenue. However the simple issue is not IF reforestation should occur but rather WHERE it should occur. Part of the problem is how the EIA procedure works through NEMC and the fact that this project was given clearance, without the third party consultation that would have (SHOULD HAVE) flagged the issues we now face and I am sure would have pushed Green Resources to rethink elements of their tree farm approach. I will be in the bush on the 15th so unable to attend. Please note that these markets are going to grow in Tanzania, what we are defining here is; the type of reforestation and forestry, how non indigenous trees can be used to buffer leakage from carbon project sites and the policy definitions of 'tree' and 'reforestation'. It is crucial that we get national level organisations, NEMC for example, looking at how these projects should be screened through the EIA procedure. The system and legal procedure is there, it just needs supporting. Best. Marc. Marc Baker Coordinator P.O. Box 425 Arusha, Tanzania www.carbontanzania.com 255 (0) 784 448761

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Dear Merja, Thank you for the invite and sorry for the slow reply, as I was in the field last week. I am not able to attend the meeting in Dar on Monday but will provide a few comments for you and for others who may attend to discuss some of the issues raised in comments made thus far. I am sure that Neil's data from the TZ Bird Atlas and other research will be very useful in identifying environmental concerns that need to be considered, particularly in important areas such as the southern highlands, and Marc's earlier points about the EIA process and general procedures for evaluating plantation investments are clearly important. My input here will however take a rather wider view on the subject of private forestry support in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. First, I think that all parties, regardless of their inclinations, will agree that Tanzania inevitably needs more of two things (among others): wood and money- wood for building etc and money for local income, investment, growth, etc. At a policy or planning level I don't think those will be strategically disputed. The key question, as Marc alludes to in his comments, is how one produces those two things (wood and money) in ways that also maintain key ecosystem services, which may indirectly produce a lot more money than plantation forestry. A critical issue here is what kinds of commercial forestry will be promoted, on what kinds of landscapes and involving which actors? My sense is that the concept note is placing greater emphasis on private plantation forestry rather than the areas which contain most of the people and most of the wood in Tanzania- namely forests on village lands, whether those areas are under PFM or not. In terms of the links between commercial forestry and biodiversity, this is critical because if one is promoting commercial forestry (timber harvesting) on community lands (either at village, community group, or individual scales), then we are not only talking about indigenous forests, but about creating the kinds of economic incentives for local investments in forest conservation, upon which most of the forests in Tanzania ultimately depend. Thus the question as I see it is not only: 'can investments in exotic tree plantations have a negative impact on biodiversity and how can those impacts best be mitigated?'; but rather 'are we investing in the activities that will have the most total added value in terms of sustainable forest use and production, environmental conservation, and pro-poor commercial investment?'

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The issue of commercial forestry in relation to PFM is of course not a new one; the Finnish, Danish, and Norwegian govts among others have been working for years with FBD for years to move PFM past the stage of local forest protection and recovery, to sustainable harvesting and income generation. Almost without exception, these efforts to enable local communities to convert their forests into income from sustainable timber harvesting have been a complete failure- simply b/c in very few instances have communities been allowed by district and national authorities to harvest what is supposed to be their property, even when they have spent 10+ years conserving the resource in the expectation of such gains (I attach reference to one small but important recent exception). This is the signature failure of what has otherwise been a tremendously successful national experience with PFM dating back to the mid 1990s. And of course this impacts areas where the Finnish government has invested heavily over the years, particularly southern Tanzania and pilot initiatives such as Angai VLFR. The scale of potential economic production from sustainable forest management is enormous; when I did the DESEMP consultancy 2 years ago, I estimated that Lindi Region as a whole (one of the poorest in Tanzania) could generate $20 million annually from harvesting low-value Miombo hardwoods (since Lindi has over 3.5 million ha of unreserved forests). Places like Angai could earn several hundred thousand dollars annually, which is easily the highest-value economic option in that remote and heavily forested rural area. The gains for biodiversity by establishing sustainable local forest management regimes based on selective timber harvesting (such as have existed in Mexico, for example, for decades) would clearly be enormous as the main threat to these forests is that they are not generating sufficient local incentives for conservation b/c their value is not captured locally.

I realize that the concept note does make reference to these issues e.g. "In particular, the establishment of partnerships between communities practising Participatory Forest Management in miombo forest areas and private forestry companies / industries will be assessed." However, with reference to linkages between biodiversity conservation and commercial forestry my point is simply that 'commercializing' PFM is the critical issue and there will need to be a rigorous analysis and adaptive response to why prior investments, including by the Finnish govt, have not been able to do this so far. This will likely lead you into some complex institutional challenges which you might prefer to avoid but which I do not think can be avoided. I will also make a few minor comments on the Green Resources 'Forestry CDM/VCS Case Study' which might be relevant to this broader subject and appraisal process. There is no question there is a value to plantation forestry projects in terms of timber production, commercial investment, and employment in remote areas. I would however make the following critiques of the case study.

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1. GR is not recovering 'forests', and this word should not be used in reference to what they are producing. A conifer or eucalyptus plantation might pass as a forest, in a broader ecosystem services sense, in northern Alberta or Australia, respectively, but in southern Tanzania there is no way such land uses can be equated with 'forest'. This is fundamental to biodiversity issues and of course is a major debate in the global REDD debate. 2. GR argues that b/c TZ needs increasing wood supplies for charcoal, fuel wood etc, which is currently being met through deforestation of natural forests, area under reforestation/afforestation plantations must increase to meet this demand and therefore displace extraction from natural forests. I'm not sure if this argument is purely polemics or not, but for a private company it is a very poor analysis of the basic economics of resource use.

 The way resources are used depends not only on the demand (for fuel wood, charcoal, etc), but on the supply- and specifically the availability and price of the supply. Natural forests are being looted not only b/c there is demand for their products, but because they are effectively 'open access', with either undefined or unenforced property rights (as the National Forestry Policy clearly states); because long-term property rights are generally weak or absent, it encourages rapid exploitation of the valuable resources therein. When rights are clarified as under PFM the looting quickly stops. It may be displaced to other areas which remain 'open or 'free for all', but if all natural forests in Tanzania were secured in this manner it is likely that the price of timber would rise considerably, which would in turn create incentives for substitutes for wood (or, say, more efficient use of fuel wood), but also for much greater investment in forest production. The argument that for REDD to succeed Tanzania must have much larger exotic plantations is a serious stretch, assuming a rigidity to supply and demand for wood products which does not in fact exist, for wood or for just about anything else, and ignoring the centrality of governance and property rights in the overall deforestation/degradation scheme of things. Hope this of use and good luck with the meeting on Monday. Best Regards, Fred (Nelson)

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Director Maliasili Initiatives Ltd P.O. Box 8372 Arusha Tanzania Mobile: +255 784 378 772 Email: [email protected]

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