The need to conduct an inventory on the baobab species in the country is now more than imminent with recent findings showing that some species will be deemed ‘endangered’ by climate change.
According to research published early last month in Biological Conservation, two of Madagascar’s endemic baobab tree species will lose much of their available habitat in the next 70 years, due to climate change and human development.
“Unfortunately very few people/scientists know exactly the types of species we have in the country. I am, however, not sure if we have the types of species that exist in Madagascar,” the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Traditional Medicine Section Acting Assistant Director, Dr Paulo Mhame exclusively told the ‘Daily News on Saturday.’
Dr Mhame said that there was need to work with the scientists at the Muhimbili University of Health and Applied Sciences (MUHAS) and Institute of Traditional Medicine People/scientists.
He said that threat in the research on the Madagascar species was very real and that unless experts acted positively against environmental degradation, there was the possibility of losing baobab trees as what is anticipated to Madagascar.
The research that appeared on the Scientific American website cited that one species may not survive to the next century. Madagascar is home to seven of the world’s eight baobab species, six of which can be found nowhere else.
The study—by scientists from the French agricultural research centre CIRAD and the University of York in England—relied on satellite images and field work to develop population estimates and distribution models for three baobab species: Adansonia grandidieri, A. perrieri and A. suarezensis.
All three trees are currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, which has not reassessed any Adansonia species since 1998. The study suggests that two of the species should now be reclassified as critically endangered. The one bright spot in their study was A. grandidieri, the largest and most populous baobab species.
The researchers counted an estimated one million trees with a distribution of more than 26,000 square kilometres. “It is only with an integration of ecological, social and economic studies, involving local communities and stakeholders, that we have a hope of restoring (Madagascar’s) ecosystem over the long term,” the report read in part.
The researchers warn that baobab trees should be considered a case study and wrote that the existing Protected Area Networks (PAN) system in Madagascar “is not likely to be effective for biodiversity conservation in the future” because the PANs will not always contain the ecological features necessary for the survival of the species that live inside them today.
The Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (Tafori) Forest Research Scientist, Dr Lawrence Mbwambo said via email that climate change is real and will impact different tree species differently in different geographical locations.
Dr Mbwambo said that unless the case of the Madagascar trees, the Tanzanian baobabs are in a different geographical location that need data of its own. “In summary all plant species will be affected by climate change and their habitat will shift southwards,” he said.
The African Development Bank Communication Specialist, Climate Investment Funds, Mr Ian Hamilton said that the impact of climate change on specific ecosystems and on vital agricultural resources across the African continent was of huge importance to the AfDB.
Mr Hamilton said that climate change is a cross-sectoral issue which carries with it implications for a range of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, water and energy. “In relation to the baobab tree, it is clear that it is a tree which thrives only in certain ecosystems and requires very specific natural conditions to flourish.
As a result, it is quite vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes and as a species, could suffer from a changing climate,” he said. Shedding light of the Climate Investment Fund, a financing instrument with the objective of helping developing countries pilot low-emissions technologies and climate resilient development, he said that it is worth 7.6 billion US Dollars.
Of this total, over 2.5 billion US Dollars is dedicated to Africa across two funds, the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund with this latter fund being made up of the Programme for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low- Income Countries (SREP), the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience and the Forest Investment Program (FIP).
Tanzania is one of the five SREP African pilot countries and has received endorsement in principle of its Investment Plan on July 25th 2013. This investment plan offers a unique opportunity to propel Tanzania’s future development along a lowcarbon pathway by reducing energy poverty and increasing energy security.
By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
