University of Helsinki studies forests in Kenya
Eduardo Maeda from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Geosciences and Geology has modeled the loss of cloud forests in Kenyan Taita Hills since the 1980s. Vast forest areas have been converted to fields with serious consequences.
Cloud forest is a tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level.Photo: Cristóbal Alvarado Minic / Flickr.com (Creative Commons).
Cloud forests are included in the most threatened forest types in the world. Typical cloud forest is rich in epiphyte plants. The cloud forests around the Eastern Arc Mountains in Africa have been named one of the centres of biodiversity in the world. As cooling effect of the mountains condenses the water vapour of the atmosphere into fog and clouds, the plants get the water straight from the air. However, the moist climate is also ideal for agriculture, especially as the area is surrounded by dry savannahs.
Eduardo Maeda has focused his studies on the Taita Hill in the south-eastern Kenya, where the cloud forest have been harvested and converted to fields. Only one percent of the original forest area is left. By his doctoral study, Maede aims at preventing similar ecological destruction in other East-African mountain areas.
In his research, Maeda has modelled the loss of the forests on Taita area since the 1980s until 2003. The acreage for agriculture will rise to cover 60 percentage of the area, at the same time the loss of the cloud forests that functioned as watershed for the area has caused problems in the hydrology. Earlier, the trees trained water, decreased water flow, and prevented erosion, but now the bare fields require artificial irrigation to produce crop.
The cultivation of Eucalyptus trees is especially harmful, as the tree drains the water deep from the soil, and it is not a suitable substrate for the epiphyte plants. According to Maeda’s research it would be important to add banks and other obstacles on the hills to prevent the water flow, so that the rainwater could be used, and additional damages prevented.
The University of Helsinki has recently purchased facilities for research station at the Taita Hills. The station will be opened in January 2011.
Read more about the projects at Taita Hills from The Taita and Taitatoo website.
This article has been translated from Finnish article by Pirjo Hellemaa, senior lecturer of physical geography, University of Helsinki.
