Ecoregion Action Programme - The Planning Process
The EAME biodiversity visioning process involved a series of workshops, conducted between 1999 and 2001: a visioning workshop in 2001, a strategy workshop in 2001 and national and regional 'root-cause' analysis workshops in 2002 and 2003. During this process:
- A biodiversity vision has been developed – covering a 50 year period;
- 21 priority land / seascapes have been identified - 8 of global, 7 of ecoregional, and 6 of sub-regional outstanding significance.
- Conservation targets have been set for habitat, species and landscape;
- The root causes of biodiversity loss were identified and first steps have been taken toward developing national action plans.
- National multi-stakeholders committees and national focal-point institutions have been elected for Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and a regional EAME committee elected.
- Ecoregion Strategy Framework has been produced - covering a 25-year period.
Below you can read about;
The four biogeographical sub-regions
 The northern monsoon current coast
This sub-region extends northward from Lamu at 2 ° 20’S to around 2 ° 15’N on the Somali coast. The fauna is characteristically Western Indian Ocean, but there is a gradual decline in diversity or orals northwards from Lamu. This section of coast experiences a reversal in the flows of currents during the two monsoon seasons, and the southern edge of ths sub-region approximates to the southern-most extent of this reversal.
The coral coast
This is the largest sub-region of the EAME. It extends along approximately 2,300 km of coast, from Angoche at 16 ° 14’S in Mozambique northwards throughout Tanzania to the Lamu Archipelago in northern Kenya (2 ° 20’S). The shallow sublittoral zone of this sub-region is dominated by coral reefs, and the region as a whole includes a diverse range of habitats including mangroves, seagrasses, and sandy and rocky shores.
The swamp coast
The swamp coast is confined to central Mozambique, extending for approximately 908 km from Angoche at 16 ° 15’S southwards to Bazaruto (21 ° 10’S). The coast of this sub-region consists of extensive sandy beaches, and coastal swamps and estuaries with very large mangrove forests. The inshore waters of this coast are very turbid, both because of shallow sea floors that are disturbed by wave action, and because twenty-four rivers discharge into the sea here, adding their own sediment loads to these coastal waters. This includes the Zambezi River, with watershed covering 1.3 million square kilometres and including nine countries.
The papabolic dune coast
The most southerly sub-region extends for approximately 850 km, from the Bazaruto Archipelago at 21 ° 10’S to the Mlalazi River in Natal, at 28 ° 7’S. This part of the coast is characterised by high parabolic dunes and north-trending capes and headlands, with coastal barrier lakes behind the dunes.
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The Four Key Habitats / Communities
Four key habitats / community groups and two species taxa groups form the basis of the biodiversity priority setting these are:
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Establishing Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation
It has been recognised that, at least in the short-term, it is not possible to sustainably manage the entire length of the eastern African marine ecoregion. Efforts still need to be focused on specific areas within the region, but these need to be selected to include the full range of habitats with a view to maintaining ecological function and diversity. However, the risk exists that even when individual sites are successfully managed and conserved, in 20 or 30 years time we may end up with a few, isolated areas of high biodiversity surrounded by degraded habitats. For the long-term benefit of the people of eastern Africa and the sustained conservation of the marine life upon which they depend, a network of effective, strategically-placed marine protected areas is needed. A reduction of the general threats imposed by human activities is, as always, of greatest importance. This ultimately calls for management of marine protected areas within the context of an integrated coastal management strategy.
The criteria used to define the priority areas included:
Unique / endemic species, species assemblages and / or associations
- Intact biota (including presence of top predators);
- Important ecological processes;
- Unique physical habitats and habitat features;
- Species richness;
- Species of concern;
- Important feeding, breeding and / or resting sites;
- Seasonal migrations;
- Complete or unique habitat complexes and;
- Degree of representation.
Each selection was documented with forms that aimed to capture brief site descriptions, the important biodiversity attributes of the sites, the role the site plays concerning physical oceanographic processes in the region, and the criteria that resulted in the site being selected. The priority areas were all mapped using geographical information system (GIS) and linked to a Microsoft Access database that contained all the forms documenting the importance of each area.
Experts reviewed the overlap between the priorities for individual biological attributes and defined broader seascapes that amalgamated as many of these priority biological and habitat features as possible. Each of the four sub-regions was analysed separately to ensure another level of representation. This approach generated the final map of biological priorities for EAME. The biological priorities were ranked as global (G), ecoregional (E) or subregional (S) importance according to the collective opinion of the assembled experts. For each of the amalgamated biological priority areas a further process was undertaken to assess conservation needs, future threats, current status and opportunities for enhanced conservation at the scale of the priority landscapes and across the entire ecoregion.
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