Trees for life
Tanzania’s Rondo Plateau is a magnet for birds. The World Land Trust’s José Rojo Martin talks about the species and habitats there that you can help save.
A tiny remaining tract of the once-mighty belt of coastal forests of eastern Africa, Tanzania’s Rondo Plateau is a magnet for birds. The World Land Trust’s José Rojo Martin talks about the species which rely on an ancient mosaic of forest fragments that you can help save from deforestation.
A900-metre-high solitary tabletop mountain in the south-eastern Tanzanian district of Lindi, the Rondo Plateau stands out even among the other, already eye-catching sections of the country’s coastal forest.
Asked to describe the plateau, primatologist Andrew Perkin recounts past hikes through a landscape on two levels. Above, on the tabletop’s upper reaches, a ‘relic’ of misty forests made possible by the moist microclimate of clouds drawn to Rondo’s elevation. Below, at the base of the plateau, springs fed by the moisture percolating through the plateau’s sandy slopes; a hub of water and life for elephants, butterflies and the village communities nearby.
“This landscape is really unique,” Andrew says. “Such an elevational gradient so close to the ocean is very rare within the coastal forests of eastern Africa.”
Saving irreplaceable habitats like this is the mission of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG). With support from a new World Land Trust (WLT) campaign, our partner will help create 10 Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) at Lindi District – a 49,000-plus-acre buffer zone
(or 20,000 football pitches) all around the pre-existing Rondo Nature Reserve, at a time when roads are fuelling deforestation for conversion into commercial farms. If enough people – Birdwatch readers included – rally behind the WLT appeal, TFCG could unlock something incredible: a vast coastal forest corridor for elephant family units, leopards and lions to roam and thrive.
There is also head-turning life at stake here for bird enthusiasts. According to Andrew, the plateau’s commanding position is not just a magnet for moisture; it is also a beacon for bird species known for herculean migratory treks.
Classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List, Spotted Ground Thrush is one such presence of the forests of the Rondo area; a terrestrial species some 21 cm long that uses its plumage – brownish at the back, black-and-white spotted underparts – for great camouflaging effect.
The IUCN assessment describes a bird “at all times difficult to observe, freezing motionless for minutes when disturbed”. Andrew, who has recorded Spotted Ground Thrush on past visits to Tanzania, concurs. “It’s a really enigmatic, cryptic and quiet species – very unique in a genus where all other species are orange and unspotted,” he explains. “Very little is known, but we suspect it migrates huge distances at night and from what we know so far, we think it’s possible that populations from Zimbabwe are travelling thousands of kilometres to the Rondo area to breed.”
On the trail of the ‘Holy Grail’
Mystery is also the name of the game for another of Rondo’s migrants: African Pitta.
Those lucky enough to lay their eyes on this elusive, dazzling traveller of Africa are not likely to forget it. The ink-like black crown, face and ears, mustard-yellow flanks and breast and salmon-pink throat would be enough to impress most observers, but with African Pitta nature went even further – throwing in wing-tips that glitter with turquoise and royal blue hues. Add clear, ringing phwit-like call notes and a knack for quickly hopping about as it moves through the forest floor, and African Pitta’s attraction for birders needs little explaining.
African Pitta shares Spotted Ground Thrush’s shy nature – individuals are known to freeze for long periods when disturbed – and reputation for long-distance travelling. Its migration routes are thought to span vast ranges: from breeding grounds in southern and south-central Africa to which the birds head to in November and December to non-breeding grounds in equatorial Africa
in March and April. Coupled with its stunning colours and slippery character, these journeys have earned African Pitta quasi-legendary status as the ‘Holy Grail of African birding’.
The forests all along the Rondo Plateau also feature a resident species which, if not quite as fabled as
African Pitta, has beauty to match it. Spectacular and iridescent, Narina Trogon would brighten the day of anyone chancing on one. There is the metallic green that males sport on their heads, or their crimson underside plumage and aquamarine flecks under the eyes. There is also the remarkable silence these birds hold outside the breeding season, or their habit of turning their backs when threatened – keeping the tell-tale red away from the prying eyes of potential predators.
But perhaps most spellbinding of all are Narina Trogon’s courting calls, a reflection of the story behind the species’ unusual name. Just as ornithologist François Le Vaillant was inspired by his Khoikhoi lover Narina when he christened this bird in the 1780s, centuries later the serenading of Narina Trogon males can be heard filling the forest during the breeding season. With help from conservation efforts like TFCG’s proposed new 10 reserves, their calls – a deep, throaty huooo-huooo – will never stop ringing in Tanzania and beyond.
Deforestation threat
From the flamboyant African Pitta to the more discrete Spotted Ground Thrush, no two bird visitors to Rondo are alike, but all need the same to thrive: vast protected corridors through which to migrate safe from human pressure. A glance at IUCN’s distribution maps for Spotted Ground Thrush lays bare exactly how urgent it is to preserve habitats like Rondo. The global conservation body puts the species’ numbers at a declining count of 2,500 across just a handful of African countries, with Tanzania and Kenya thought to host a mere 200 pairs.
The Endangered bird’s reliance on disturbance-free forests for wintering makes it particularly vulnerable in Tanzania, where – the IUCN has warned – “heavy pressures” are increasingly encroaching coastal habitats.
By contrast, African Pitta’s wider range paints a safer conservation picture – and yet populations are decreasing. In addition, and as Andrew Perkin notes, the IUCN maps placing these birds across much larger swathes of equatorial, central and eastern Africa can conceal the fact that actual numbers are thin on the ground. “On paper, African Pitta enjoys a widespread distribution all over parts of Africa, but when you carry out surveys in many places, you won’t find them,” he says. “They don’t occur in flocks but in singles and doubles. Wherever they turn up regularly, like Rondo, is the place that you want to protect.”
The same contradiction – vast distribution ranges on paper, locally uncommon populations – pervades the outlook for Narina Trogon. The IUCN has the conservation status for this species as Least Concern, but that won’t save it from population declines if deforestation is allowed to continue at current rates. In Tanzania, Narina Trogon and all
❝ Saving irreplaceable habitats like this is the mission of the Group Tanzania Forest Conservation❞
other forest-dwelling bird species can only watch on as a Kent-sized tract of forest (or 1 million acres) is razed across the country every year – making land conservation strategies like TFCG’s new plan crucial to save what is left.
Saving the coastal canopy
If TFCG’s plan for a wildlife corridor succeeds, Spotted Ground Thrush, African Pitta and Narina Trogon won’t be alone in benefiting.
What is left of Tanzania’s high-value coastal forests would fit within Greater London, but with help from donations to the new campaign, the proposed 10 new reserves will protect a canopy of 100 endemic plant species; some, like the 20-metre-tall Gigasiphon macrosiphon trees, count fewer than 50 mature specimens across their entire range. To save these forest fragments this year is to throw a lifeline to a trove of birdlife, saving the home of Southern Ground Hornbill, Southern Banded Snake Eagle, Malagasy Pond Heron, Böhm’s Bee-eater, Green Barbet, Green-headed Oriole, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Reichenow’s Batis, Chestnut-fronted Helmetshrike, East Coast Akalat and many others besides.
All will be safer because of one of the key pillars of TFCG’s plan: the central role assigned to local communities. Our partner won’t be purchasing these 10 reserves directly; instead, villages will decide where the protected areas are to be created, with TFCG stepping in to boost local livelihoods through village savings and loans associations and support for communities to embrace sustainable farming and forest management practices. Putting villages at the heart of land protection efforts will lay the foundations of a future where people and planet both benefit, and livelihoods don’t cost the forest.
If unchecked, intensive farming risks turning the Rondo area into a relic; one of a few fragments left standing of Africa’s once-vast green canopy by the ocean, home to specialists – like endangered Rondo Bush Baby primates – that can only live in habitats like this. Yet a chance exists this year to pave the way for a very different tomorrow. With local people at the helm and the support from bird enthusiasts, TFCG can protect 20,000 ha – more than 20,000 football pitches – worth of habitat all around the beating heart that is the Rondo Plateau; a safer home for Spotted Ground Thrush and African Pitta to return to, their light treading over the coastal forest floor never silenced. ■