By Julie Shaw
The Sanje mangabey (Cercocebus sanjei) helped put Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains on the wildlife biology research map in the 1980s after the lanky, pale-faced primate was discovered by scientists in 1979. Now the Endangered mangabey is bringing the area to the attention of tourists.
The mild-mannered monkeys’ willingness to host out-of-town guests, via the habituated Sanje mangabey project at the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, has landed them a small but important role in an overarching strategy to conserve these mountains and the ecosystem services they provide.
Comprising the southern most part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, the Udzungwas cover a total of about 10,000 square kilometers in south-central Tanzania. They are crucial not only because of their outstanding biodiversity, but also because of the key role they play in providing fresh water and hydropower to urban Tanzanians.
“It’s definitely a very important area,” said Francesco Rovero, a researcher with Italy’s Trento Museum of Natural Sciences and coordinator of the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre in Mang’ula, a field station established in 2006 and part of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park.
“It’s the largest block of the Eastern Arc, with the largest forests, and also the largest elevation gradient of continuous vegetation—300 to 2,000 meters—so they provide a very important water catchment resource,” he said, adding that about one-third of the national production of electricity is due to two hydropower plants in the area.
“As a result, the Kilombero Valley, which is east of this forest, is very, very fertile; that’s why you have intensive sugar cane cultivation, rice cultivation, fishing, lots of others. So the valley, which is a narrow strip between Udzungwa National Park and the Selous game reserve, is very, very highly populated because of the ecosystem services provided by the mountains.”
The Udzungwas are also home to more endemic vertebrate species than any other forest block in the Eastern Arc Mountains, including 13 primate species.
When the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) was planning its strategy for its recent $7 million investment in the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests, it held meetings where stakeholders in the region determined that priorities should include restoring and connecting the fragmented forests of the Udzungwas and increasing community involvement in and benefit from preserving the forests. A proposal from researcher Trevor Jones that a group of mangabeys be habituated—conditioned to human presence—at Udzungwa Mountains National Park for viewing by tourists and community members became one small part of the resulting conservation action.
Jones’ first concern was the mangabeys. He and his team, for the first time ever, habituated a group of the Sanje mangabeys in 2002-2003 for research purposes.
“It became apparent to me that as more people learned of how wonderful it was to be able to observe these animals at close hand, demand for that experience would grow and place unsustainable pressure and stresses on the research group,” Jones said in a recent interview by e-mail.
He decided that the best way to prevent that was to habituate a second group for educational tourism purposes, and to initiate a project to ensure that the tourism operation was run professionally and monitored carefully, with priority given to the welfare of the monkeys. CEPF provided funding for the first phase of the project.
Jones and his team worked closely with Tanzania National Parks staff to fully habituate the second group, design the tourism operation, draw up regulations for responsible mangabey viewing, and train and equip guides.
“In terms of education and attitudes, the mangabeys can be a powerful tool,” said Jones. “The area has many problems, and the community’s opinions on the park are mixed. But as more local people are given the experience of observing the rich and complex lives of these unique monkeys—which was never possible before—this will enhance understanding of why it is important to conserve these amazing forests. Several times I have witnessed people's delight and wonder on first seeing mangabeys foraging or grooming or mating just 10 meters away, so this optimism is based on first-hand experience.”
One of the other goals of the project is to provide a modest boon for the community surrounding the park through the related increase in tourism. “Our hope is that this will encourage more visitors to stay longer in the area of the park, boosting the local economy,” Jones said. “This is another vital way to promote a more positive attitude toward conservation among the local community.”
Viewing the mangabeys has indeed become a lure for tourists and has increased park attendance, according to Paul Banga, the warden for ecology at the Udzungwa Mountains National Park. He said that a small number of people from the surrounding community have been trained to serve as guides in addition to the park staff who work with the mangabeys. Tanzanian national parks also share a portion of their revenue with neighboring communities, Banga said, so the increased interest benefits the people in the area.
In 1992, about one-fifth of the Udzungwas was protected as the 1,990-square- kilometer Udzungwa Mountain National Park. This was particularly good news for the Sanje mangabey because the territory of the park is home to one of the only two populations of the species. The IUCN Red List gives the latest population estimate for the Sanje mangabey at no more than 1,300, though some researchers currently estimate as many as 3,500 in the wild. Their population is split between the park and the southern Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve, a degraded forest that conservationists have targeted for greater protection for years, citing its rich biodiversity.
“Conserving only one relatively small population is not a viable long-term strategy for persistence of these flagship animals of the Udzungwa Mountains,” Jones said. “If we are serious about ensuring a future for the Sanje mangabey, we must protect both populations.”
Uzungwa Scarp was included in a recent study of biodiversity and connectivity in forests south and southeast of Udzungwa National Park. Conducted by a team led by Rovero with CEPF support, the study recommended including Uzungwa Scarp in a nature reserve, an upgraded status that should ensure stronger protection. Though the Tanzanian government acted to include some of the studied reserves in the new 134,511 hectare Kilombero Nature Reserve, it has not yet changed the status of Uzungwa Scarp, or taken action on the recommendation for a protected corridor between this forest and the northern block of protected area formed by Kilombero Nature Reserve and the National Park.
Jones and Rovero, along with John Msirikale, also authored a 2007 report for Conservation International on the state of corridors used by large mammals between the Udzungwa Mountains and the 54,600-square-kilometer Selous Game Reserve. The study showed that two remaining narrow corridors, critical to healthy gene flow between populations of large mammals, are under serious threat from human immigration, land use changes, uncontrolled destruction of habitat, and increased cattle grazing, and urged quick action to protect these areas.
Video: Sanje mangabey
Video: Udzungwa Mountains Key to Water & Power Services
See Also: - CEPF Investment in the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya