Tanzanian coastal city builds botanical garden to protect rare forest cover

Tanzania's Indian Ocean coastal city of Tanga is set to establish a coastal forest botanical garden aimed at conserving and protecting coastal forest cover from extinction, an expert said on Friday.

Mohamed Yasin, the brains behind the project and director of Tanzania eco-Volunteerism (TeV), a Tanga-based environmental conservation organization, said the botanical garden was currently being established at Geza village, 16 kilometers south of the Tanga city.

"The botanical garden is being established as an attempt at restoring and protecting the patch of coastal forest reputed to harbor tree species categorized as endemic and some of them appearing in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature threatened species," said Yasin.

He said that the area also boasted of biologically important coastal and mangrove forest ecosystem of Tanzania's Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Hotspot.

Yasin added the overall objectives of the project was development of the botanical garden as an institution for conservation, education and research. Endit