How to reduce ecological footprint on Mount Kilimanjaro?

With 40,000 to 50,000 trekkers arriving each year on the ultimate African touring challenge of the mighty Kilimanjaro, pollution is becoming an ever-increasing concern. The environment is fragile, subject to extremes of climate and the lower mountain slopes are home to many of the Chagga people. The streams run downhill to supply the farms and villages in the foothills, so parties on climbing tours to Kilimanjaro are requested not to wash their feet or their utensils in them. Drinking water on the mountain is taken from the streams and boiled, filtered or purified. Bottled water is not environmentally friendly as plastic bottles are sometimes illegally dumped and blown around. KINAPA enforces strict regulations to keep Kilimanjaro clean. Porters marching on Mt. Kilimanjaro must weigh out their gear with a park ranger on leaving a campsite and weigh in again at the next. A tour operator can be fined or lose his license if there is a discrepancy. Litter is disposed of by giving it to porters, but some porters from other climb operators are poorly motivated due to abysmally low wages and inadequate training. It is better to take away small, heavy items which have disproportionate effects on the environment.

Sadly, the problems are escalating, particularly at Crater Camp, where detritus and human feces have accumulated to such an extent that the camp may soon be closed; though recent cleaning efforts have started to avoid the closure. This is because of the high altitude and low temperatures, human waste cannot be buried in the frozen ground and does not degrade. Many climb without portable toilets, and although some tour operators provide portable chemical toilets, some exhausted and debilitated porters simply empty them on site rather than carrying them down the mountain. Also, many operators do not provide for the hygiene needs of porters who must relieve themselves in the open. Lower down the mountain, there are long drop toilets, huts with deep holes in the ground.

But these can no longer cope with the numbers of visitors, so are becoming a very negative part of the Kilimanjaro hiking experience. In emergency, you are asked to bury your waste at least 70 feet away from the trail. The evening camp fire, iconic of an African safari vacation, is not permitted on the Kilimanjaro Mountain where fires can be devastating in arid zones with strong winds. Also, slithering down the shale on descent in a strategic maneuver for the sake of speed is now discouraged ecologically.

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis
Kilimanjaro National Park covering an area of some 75,575 ha protects the largest free standing volcanic mass in the world and the highest mountain in Africa, rising 4877m above surrounding plains to 5895m at its peak. With its snow-capped peak, the Kilimanjaro is a superlative natural phenomenon, standing in isolation above the surrounding plains overlooking the savannah.

Criterion
Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the largest volcanoes in the world. It has three main volcanic peaks, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. With its snow-capped peak and glaciers, it is the highest mountain in Africa. The mountain has five main vegetation zones from the lowest to the highest point: Lower slopes, montane forest, heath and moorland, alpine desert and summit. The whole mountain including the montane forest belt is very rich in species, in particular mammals, many of them endangered species. For this combination of features but mostly its height, its physical form and snow cap and its isolation above the surrounding plains, Mount Kilimanjaro is considered an outstanding example of a superlative natural phenomenon.

Integrity
Kilimanjaro National Park, established in 1973, initially comprised the whole of the mountain above the tree line and six forest corridors stretching down through the montane forest belt. At the time of inscription in 1987, the main pressures affected mostly the forest reserve which acted as a buffer zone to the park. The World Heritage Committee recommended extending the national park to include more areas of montane forest. Following a 2005 extension, the National Park includes the whole of the mountain above the tree line as well as the natural forest (montane forest) which was under Kilimanjaro Forest Reserve, and as such fulfils the criteria of integrity. It is important that the extension of the National Park be reflected in the boundaries of the property.

The wildlife of the property is important to the experience of Kilimanjaro, although the property is not inscribed in relation to biodiversity criteria. Pressures on elephant, buffalo and antelope, and logging in the Forest Reserve area, were noted as integrity concerns at the time of inscription. The Park is connected to Amboseli National Park, however corridors to Arusha National Park and Tsavo National Park have been encroached, impacting on wildlife migration.

Protection and management requirements
Kilimanjaro National Park is protected under national legislation as a National Park and a management plan is in place. The property requires an effective and managing organization, including sufficient well equipped ranger presence to be able to carry out surveillance and implementation of the management plan. A key management issue is maintaining the aesthetic quality of the property as a spectacular natural site. Protecting its visual integrity and sustaining its natural integrity are key management issues. Key viewpoints to the property also need to be protected, including from Arusha and Amboseli where the most famous views of the property can be seen. An effective programmed of research and monitoring of the property is also required.

Threats to the property include increasing and cumulative stress from sources such as adjacent land uses, downstream effects of air and water pollution, invasive species, fire and climate change. The glaciers of the property are vulnerable to retreat, and are cited as a feature of particular vulnerability to global climate change. The impacts from these threats need to be closely monitored and minimized. Tourism poses a significant threat and careful planning of related infrastructure and access development is required. Human pressure on the property needs to be managed, which can result otherwise in illegal harvest of its resources, encroachments to park boundary and blockage of migratory routes and dispersal areas. Education programmers and integration of park management with all involved partners and stakeholders, including the surrounding rural population, is essential.

Implications for conservation
Mount Kilimanjaro has a very high diversity of lower plants as well as many endemic and rare species even in comparison to the higher vascular plants. The lower plants play a critical role in water interception and catchment on Mount Kilimanjaro. Due to their small size, lower plants can only be protected by protecting their habitat. The vegetation belts with the highest diversity and biomass of lower plants are the mossy montane rainforest, the giant heather forest, the subalpine ericaceous bush, and the giant groundsel moorland on the southern, southwestern, and eastern slopes between 2200 m and 4000 m. fortunately much of these habitats fall within Kilimanjaro National Park. However most of the lower forest below 2700 m is outside of the national park and much of this forest has been extensively logged in the past. Additionally, fierce fires particularly in the upper forest edge and in the ericaceous vegetation have been very destructive. The collection of firewood around the tourist huts particularly the removal of the giant heather Erica arborea has been detrimental to the bryophytes.

The following measures should be taken to protect the lower plants

• All legal and illegal logging on Mount Kilimanjaro should be stopped immediately particularly above 2200 m.

• Firewood collecting by tourists and porters if allowed should be restricted to dead and fallen branches. Greater efforts should be taken to prevent fires particularly in the ericaceous forests and bushes.

• The importance of lower plants in terms of their diversity, endemism, rarity, and water Interception value should be included in broader educational campaigns and in the more popular books on Mount Kilimanjaro oriented towards tourists.

• Any reforestation program on Mount Kilimanjaro should use native species such as Ocotea somberness and Podocarpus latifolius because they provide suitable substrate for epiphytes.

Human influences on the montane forest

The montane forest on Mount Kilimanjaro has been greatly influenced by human activities. Much of the original montane forest has been previously cut (Wood, 1965b) and thus a very large proportion of the forest today consists of secondary vegetation. In addition, along the southern and eastern sides of the montane forest portions of the forest have been opened up through livestock grazing and collection of forage. There has also been a significant qualitative change in the montane forest on Mount Kilimanjaro as a result of past human disturbance.

I have examined the composition and structure of the montane forest within the Maua and Marangu corridors and the Kiraragua catchment (Mwasaga, 1984). The Maua and Marangu corridors are located on the southern sides of Mount Kilimanjaro and are included within Kilimanjaro National Park. The Kiraragua catchment is on the southwestern side of the mountain and is located within the Kilimanjaro National Park and Forest Reserve.