Pedal-Powered Cinema
The world’s first pedal-powered cinema has given hope to the Udzungwa Forest Project, which until now has focussed most of its educational work on primary school children. This mobile cinema was taken to Katurukila village on the edge of the threatened Magombera forest, where 500 villagers watched a film about the importance of forests for providing water and preventing drought. This was the first showing of a pedal-powered film in Tanzania.
Death of an Udzungwa Legend
We regret to report the death of Langson Mwakisoma, a pioneering botanist in the Udzungwa Mountains.
Langson Kisoma (approx 70) died on the 6th July in his home village of Magombera. Kisoma was a longstanding field assistant to ecologists working in the Udzungwa Mountains, particularly in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was an expedition member on some of the first intensive ecological surveys of the Udzungwa area, including Alan Rodger’s first surveys of the colobus monkeys and Jon Lovett’s pioneering surveys of the plants. As a result, Kisoma was central to the current understanding of the biology of the Udzungwa Mountains and to the discovery of several new species.
Andy and the Sugar Factory
This rather different expedition was never going to reveal new species, but the Kilombero Sugar Company may hold the key to the survival of a forest and many rare species living there. The sugar company are the owners of a large part of the threatened Magombera forest, where the Udzungwa Forest Project (UFP) is carrying out it’s work on forest conservation. As part of efforts to save Magombera from destruction, Dr. Andy Marshall spent two days with the sugar company staff, exchanging ideas and learning about sugar.
New Tree Species
While setting up survey plots to better understand the habitat of the endangered kipunji in 2010, Udzungwa Forest Project researchers stumbled across a tree that they could not identify. The initial specimen collections contained leaves and fruits but no flowers, meaning that the tree could not be verified. This led the research team to embark on their annual expedition to the Udzungwa Mountains two months earlier than usual, in an attempt to catch the tree in flower.
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