The Ngezi Forest Reserve is a forest reserve located in Pemba island (Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

). It covers an area of 1440 hectars, mostly comprising primary forest. The reserve was established in 1959.

Geography

The Ngezi Reserve is located in the north-western tip of Pemba, the second largest island in the Zanzibar Archipelago

Zanzibar Archipelago

The Zanzibar Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean. There are two main islands, plus a host of smaller islets that surround them.-Main islands:...

. It borders on the villages of Kiuyu Kwa Manda (south), Tondooni, Verani and Makangale (north), Msuka (east) and Kipangani (west); to the west, it also borders on the Pemba Channel

Pemba Channel

The Pemba Channel is the strait separating the eastern coast of mainland Africa from Pemba Island. The northernmost part of the channel faces the coast of Kenya, while the rest of it faces mainland Tanzania....

.

Environment

The Reserve includes several biome

Biome

Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...

s, including tropical forest, riverine forest, and maquis shrubland

Maquis shrubland

thumb|220px|Low Maquis in Corsica.220px|thumb|High macchia in Sardinia.Maquis or macchia is a shrubland biome in the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs such as holm oak, tree heath, strawberry tree, sage, juniper, buckthorn, spurge olive and myrtle...

. Some plants found in the area are Odyendea zimmermanni, Uapaca guineensis, Antiaris toxicaria, Elaeis guineensis, Erythrophloeum suaveolens, Pachystela brevipes, Bombax rhodognaphalon, Quassia undulata, and Croton sylvaticus

Croton sylvaticus

Croton sylvaticus is a tree in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is commonly known as the Forest Fever-berry. These trees are distributed in forests from the east coast of South Africa to Tropical Africa.-References:...

. . Riverine forest mostly comprises Barringtonia racemosa

Barringtonia racemosa

Barringtonia racemosa is a tree in the family Lecythidaceae. It is commonly known as the Powder-puff Tree. It is found in coastal swamp forests and on the edges of estuaries in the Indian Ocean, starting at the east coast of Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal to Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia,...

and Samadera indica, as well as Raphia

Raphia

Raphia may refer to:* Raphia , a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae* Raphia , the genus of raffia palms* Raphia , the Ancient Greek name for Rafah, a town in Gaza...

and Anthocleista

Anthocleista

Anthocleista is a genus of tree- and shrub-like tropical gentians in the Gentian family , tribe Potalieae, subtribe Potaliinae. There are about 50 species in the genus Anthocleista, native mainly to tropical Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands...

where swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s are found.. Shrubland is mostly found on the Tondooni peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

, and its vegetation includes Sorindeia madagascariensis, Diospyros consolatae, Tamarindus indica, Afzelia quanzensis, Terminalia boivinii, Cussonia zimmermannii, and Olea woodiana .

Some areas of the Reserve are dominated by mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

s, and host Sonneratia alba, Avicennia marina

Avicennia marina

Avicennia marina, commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae...

, Xylocarpus granatum

Xylocarpus granatum

The cannonball mangrove, Xylocarpus granatum, is a species of mangrove in the mahogany family . It is found in Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands....

, Bruguiera

Bruguiera

Bruguiera is a plant genus in the family Rhizophoraceae. It is a small genus of six mangrove species of the Indian and west Pacific Ocean region, its range extending from East Africa and Madagascar through coastal India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia to northern Australia, Melanesia and Polynesia...

, Rhizophora

Rhizophora

Rhizophora is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the Red Mangrove but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. Rhizophora species generally live in intertidal zones which are indundated daily by the ocean...

, and Ceriops

Ceriops

Ceriops is a genus of mangroves in family Rhizophoraceae.There are 5 species:*Ceriops australis *Ceriops decandra Ding Hou *Ceriops pseudodecandra Sheue, Liu, Tsai, and Yang...

. Other notable plants found in the Reserve are the endemic Chrisalidocarpus pembanus and Ensete proboscoideum, as well as Terminalia catapa, Musa acuminata

Musa acuminata

Musa acuminata is a species of wild banana native to Southeast Asia. It is the progenitor of modern edible bananas, along with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 8000 years ago, it is one of the earliest examples of domesticated plants.-Taxonomy and nomenclature:Musa acuminata...

, Typhanodorun lindleyanum, and Philippia mafiensis. There is also a significant number of orchids

Orchidaceae

The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species,...

, including Aerangis

Aerangis

Aerangis, abbreviated as Aergs in horticultural trade, is a genus of the Orchid family . The name of this genus has been derived from the Greek words 'aer' and 'angos' , referring to the form of the lip. It is the type genus of the subtribe Aerangidinae...

, Bulbophyllum

Bulbophyllum

Bulbophyllum is the largest genus in the orchid family Orchidaceae. With more than 2,000 species, it is also one of the largest genera of flowering plants, exceeded only by Astragalus...

, Eulophia

Eulophia

The genus Eulophia, which also constitutes the monogeneric alliance Eulophia, includes 210 species of orchids. It was first described by John Lindley in 1821. The name "Eulophia" was derived from the Greek words "eu" and "lophos" , referring to the crested ridges of the labellum in most species...

, Disperis johnstonii, Nervilia bicarinata, and Vanilla roscheri.

Fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 in the Reserve includes some rare species such as the endemic Pemba flying fox; almost extinct in recent years, its population has now grown to an estimate of 20.000 individuals, thanks to an effective protection programme. Primate

Primate

A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

s include an endemic subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of Vervet Monket, as well as the Zanzibar Red Colobus, a species that was introduced in the Reserve in the 1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. Other notable species found in the Reserve are the Blue Duiker and the Pemba Scops-owl.

External links

• Ngezi Forest Reserve Zanzinet Forum
• Ngezi Forest Reserve Department of Commercial Crops Fruits & Forestry
• Ngezi Forest Reserve Tripwolf Guide