CEPF’s Donor Council has approved the ecosystem profile for the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot—a document that provides a comprehensive analysis and strategy for conservation of the 17-country region in Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Approval of the profile commits CEPF to invest $9.8 million in the region over five years.
“While most of the countries in this hotspot face tremendous challenges in terms of human needs and development pressure, there are also great opportunities for preserving vital ecosystems are critical to human well-being,” said Patricia Zurita, executive director of CEPF. “We are eager to deliver support to communities and civil society organizations in the hotspot to help them protect their amazing natural wealth for generations to come.”
The Eastern Afromontane stretches over widely scattered but biogeographically similar mountains, covering an area of more than 1 million square kilometers from Saudi Arabia to Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The rich biological diversity in the hotspot is mirrored by the massive ecosystem services that it provides—particularly as watersheds for vast areas in the region, extending far beyond its formal boundaries. Its ecosystems also provide crucial support to agriculture and ultimately food security.
This project marked the first time CEPF has worked in the Arabian Peninsula. “Our deepest thanks go to the Saudi Wildlife Authority, Yemen’s Ministry of the Environment, and biologists from the peninsula for helping us get a comprehensive view of the species and ecosystems of this portion of the hotspot,” said Zurita.
CEPF also particularly appreciates the hard work put in by the profiling team, led by BirdLife International, and supported by CEPF and Conservation International scientists. They gathered information and feedback from more than 200 experts in five national workshops, two regional workshops, and countless exchanges of letters. The profiling team weighed the extensive data and analyzed the status of species, ecosystems, current environmental investments, socioeconomics and policies to build an overall conservation strategy for the hotspot. They also developed a specific strategy for CEPF’s investment, including four strategic “directions,” or goals, CEPF will pursue in up to 36 priority sites over the next five years. Those goals are:
1. Mainstream biodiversity into wider development policies, plans and projects to deliver the
co-benefits of biodiversity conservation, improved local livelihoods and economic
development in priority corridors.
2. Improve the protection and management of the key biodiversity area (KBA) network
throughout the hotspot.
3. Initiate and support sustainable financing and related actions for the conservation of priority
KBAs and corridors.
4. Provide strategic leadership and effective coordination of CEPF investment through a
regional implementation team.
CEPF’s investment will focus on four priority corridors containing 22 of the 36 KBAs. The first one is the Itombwe-Nyungwe Landscape shared by DRC, Burundi and Rwanda, on the watershed divide between the Nile and Congo rivers – the two most important river systems of the continent. The Northern Lake Niassa (or Lake Malawi) Mountain Complex, shared by Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique includes in particular the botanically rich grasslands of Kitulo and Nyika plateaus. In Ethiopia, CEPF has prioritized two corridors of incredible biological value, but yet underinvested in terms of conservation: the Western part of the Kaffa and Yayu Coffee Biosphere Reserve – whose forest preserve water flows for the Omo rivers and Gambella plains - and the Lake Tana Catchment, main source of the Blue Nile, to which have been associated a small number of sites on the Amharic Escarpment. Within these areas are some of the most important freshwater sites in the hotspot, including Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. Two other corridors have also been identified as high priority, and will be eligible for support under some investment priorities: the Arabian Peninsula Highlands, with six top-priority KBAs in Yemen, and the Chimanimani-Nyanga Mountains, the latter including five smaller Zimbabwean KBAs in the vicinity and three KBAs known as the Montane Islands of Mozambique.
The profile also provides a roadmap for others interested in joining strategic conservation efforts in the region, and CEPF will work with conservation and development entities in the hotspot to engage other donors in protecting the Eastern Afromontane’s natural areas, which are critical to the well-being of its people and all of humankind.