Eastern African Marine Ecoregion

Boats at Sinda Island, Tanzania - F. St. John

Priority Sites

Priority sites within the Eastern African Marine Ecoregion The process of overlaying the important areas identified by the experts allowed individual sites to be prioritised and ranked based on the level of threat, the intactness of the biological features, the presence of feeding grounds, degree of representation and other criteria. This exercise identified twenty-one priority areas, with eight areas ranked as being of global importance (G), seven of ecoregion importance (E) and six of sub-region importance (S). The priority sites for conservation within EAME are:

Kenya

Lamu Archipelago (G)

Tana River Delta (E)

Mida Creek - Malindi (G)

Msambweni - Tanga (Kenya - Tanzania cross border site) (E)

Tanzania

Rufiji - Mafia Complex (G)

Mozambique

Mtwara-Quirimbas (G) (Tanzania - Mozambique cross border site) (G)

Nacal-Mossuril (E)

Ilhas Primeiras & Segundas (E)

Zambezi Delta system (G)

Sofala Bay (S)

Bazaruto Archipelago (G)

Inhambane Bay (S)

Inharrime Complex (S)

Maputo Bay - Machangulo Complex (G)

Greater St. Lucia Wetlands (G)

Somalia

Shebela Delta (S)

Bajuni (S)

The priority sites include a diverse range of coastal and shallow water marine systems and physical features but, with the exception of Latham Island, do not extend into oceanic waters. There are two cross-border sites at Msambweni-Tanga ( Kenya – Tanzania) and Mtwara-Quirimbas ( Tanzania – Mozambique).

Reasons for the assignation of global importance were:

High levels of diversity giving a high degree of representation of the ecoregion’s species richness (e.g. Rufiji-Mafia complex; Mtwara-quirimbas; Zambezi Delta; Mida Creek-Malindi);

High levels of endemidm (e.g. Lamu Archipelago, Maputo Bay-Machangulo Complex);
Importance for critical stages in the life cycle of threatened species (e.g. Zambezi Delta for breeding Humpback whales and Lamu Archipelago, Maputo Bay-Machangulo Complex and Bazaruto for turtles);
Importance for maintaining ecosystem function (e.g. Mtwara-Quirimbas as a source area since it straddles the divergence of the South Equatorial Current, and the Zambezi and Rufiji Deltas as nursery grounds and nutrient input).

Although some sites of importance at the ecoregion and sub-region levels share some of these features, in general, sites of global importance possessed a more diverse range of significant attributes. Similarly, for sites of ecoregion importance, compared to those of sub-regional importance.