Eastern Afromontane

​The Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot was first recognized as globally important for species conservation by Mittermeier et al. (2004) when the global hotspot total was raised from 25 to 34, following a reappraisal in light of additional data. One of the results of this reappraisal was to divide the original Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya (EACF) Hotspot between two newly defined hotspots—the Eastern Afromontane and the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa. The Eastern Arc Mountains were thus absorbed into a much larger hotspot, while the Coastal Forests Hotspot was expanded to Somalia and Mozambique.

The hotspot comprises a discontinuous and divided chain of roughly four ranges of mountains. These ranges start in the north with the Asir Mountains of Saudi Arabia and the highlands of Yemen. Below these, the Ethiopian and Arabian Peninsula highlands and mountains, which split approximately 13 million years ago into three parts to produce the Great Rift Valley through a rifting process as the African continental crust pulled apart. Southeast of the ancient Ethiopian and Albertine massifs, more recent volcanic activity has produced the mountains of the Kenyan and Tanzanian highlands (Mounts Kilimanjaro, Meru, Kenya and Elgon, and the Aberdare range). Farther south, the Eastern Arc and Southern Rift mountains form another ancient massif, running from the Taita Hills in Kenya through the Eastern Arc in Tanzania to Mounts Ntchisi and Mulanje in Malawi. Farther outliers of the Eastern Afromontane, known here as the Southern Montane Islands, are found in the Chimanimani highlands of eastern Zimbabwe, Mounts Gorongosa, Namuli, Mabu and Chiperone in Mozambique, and the Mafinga Mountains that straddle the Malawi-Zambia border.

Of the 10,856 species identified in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot, almost a third (30.8 percent) are endemic. The following table shows species diversity and endemism in the hotspot: 

The profiling exercise made it clear that development was a key issue for long term, sustainable protection of biodiversity in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot. This is due to the main causes of biodiversity degradation being directly linked to inappropriate development projects for local communities, and because the future of conservation lies in the decisions that are going to be made in the coming years in terms of development policies by the national governments, regional entities and to a certain extent by external agents such as donors (whose large investments still influence development directions), international foundations and organizations, or private investors from developed and emergent countries. At the same time, the profiling exercise highlighted a lack of understanding of the importance of biodiversity on the part of decision makers, and also a lack of dialogue and coordination between stakeholders that have an obvious interest in enhanced coordination, including NGOs from both the conservation and the development worlds.

CEPF's niche in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot will be to enable civil society to have a more prominent role into driving development in a more biodiversity-friendly direction.​​​

The Eastern Afromontane Hotspot stretches over a curving arc of more than 7,000 kilometers from Saudi Arabia to Mozambique. The KBAs cover an area of more than 50 million hectares, of which only 38 percent have full legal protection and variable amounts of government funding. 

In the past five years, almost $1 billion dollars (at least $946 million) has been invested to support environmental and related issues within the hotspot, and yet its biodiversity remains seriously threatened. The priority KBAs identified for CEPF investment represent approximately 5.5 million hectares, so the CEPF contribution would equate to roughly $2 per hectare over five years for all the KBAs, on average, with the goal of supporting paths leading to longterm sustainability.

Ensuring the sustainability of CEPF interventions in this hotspot is a significant challenge, and an awareness of the magnitude of the challenge has been built into the strategy. One of its major intentions is to leverage financial support from other donors and investors, which is acutely needed in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot.

The combination of partnerships, leveraging financial and technical support, engagement in planning initiatives from local to landscape scale, tapping into increasing awareness of the economic values of ecosystem services, and support of and building the capacity within civil society offers the best hope for a sustainable conservation strategy for the hotspot.

Four strategic directions will guide the CEPF investment. These strategic directions and their associated investment priorities were determined through an intensive consultative process with stakeholders and reflect the views of civil society in the hotspot.

1. Mainstream biodiversity into wider development policies, plans and projects to deliver the cobenefits of biodiversity conservation, improved local livelihoods and economic
development in priority corridors.

2. Improve the protection and management of the 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.

Conservation Outcomes, Eastern Afromontane, Map (PDF 3.8 MB)