Redlisted species inkaya muhaka forest, Kenya; a threatened patch of the zanzibar-inhambane coastal forest ecoregion

The Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane Coastal Forest Mosaic ecoregion, together with the Eastern Arc Montane forests, harbor densities of plant species that are among the highest in the world. These natural habitats, especially small forest patches, are highly threatened along the Kenyan coast, and only slightly less threatened in coastal Tanzania. This has resulted primarily from conversion to agricultural land, although various forms of extraction also pose significant threats. Although gazetted and protected as a national monument, the forest biodiversity is still endangered. This research focused on indigenousforest plant species of high conservation value that appear in the 2017 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Mapping of RedListedplant species was done by means of random walks and geo-referencing using a GPS. The entire forest maps were created using GPS coverage through systematic walking around the forest edge. The GPS readings were complemented and translated to ARC GIS 9.3 software using Google earth digitization.This research established that 27 species in 16 families are listed in the IUCN (2017) Red list of Threatened Species. 8 species are Near Threatened (NT); 14 species are Vulnerable (VU) and 5 are Endangered (EN).