Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
This site consists of remnant deciduous coral rag forest (dominated by
Combretum schumannii) along a 12-km strip of Diani Beach, near Ukunda on the south Kenya coast. The formerly continuous forest has been cleared and fragmented, so that a set of small patches, in various degrees of intactness, now remains. Kaya Ukunda (a National Monument gazetted in 1992) has been left isolated as a 20 ha fragment slightly inland from the others, behind the Two Fishes Hotel. Twenty-one hotels, among other developments, occupy the Diani strip, and a busy road runs through the centre of some of the forest patches. Kaya Diani itself, which lies between Mworoni and Leisure Lodge Hotel, is not within this IBA.
See Box for key species.
Zoothera guttata, an intra-African migrant, was seen regularly here in the 1980s. Although there are no recent records, Diani may still be an important ‘stepping stone’ forest for this species. The current status of the other globally threatened species is similarly uncertain. At least 44 other forest-dependent species are recorded, most of them characteristic of East African coastal forests.
Tauraco fischeri is also a restricted-range species. Regionally threatened species include
Campethera mombassica,
Phyllastrephus debilis,
P. fischeri,
Erythrocercus holochlorus,
Stephanoaetus coronatus,
Pitta angolensis, and
Anthreptes neglectus.Non-bird biodiversity: Diani was originally one of the most diverse areas of forest along the Kenya coast with a rich coral rag flora. The threatened mammal Rhynchocyon petersi (EN) occurs, but its current status is unknown. Diani supports an unusually high density of the primate Colobus angolensis, and is an important site for the restricted subspecies palliatus.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Diani is a sad example of the destructive effects of uncontrolled tourist development. Only small forest patches are now left, and rampant cutting of
Combretum schumannii for tourist carvings has degraded much of what remains. Apart from the isolated Kaya Ukunda, the forest remnants are now contained on private land. Though many owners have destroyed their forest or permitted it to be degraded, others (notably the hotels Robinson Club Baobab and Nomads) have protected their holdings. The remaining forest, although fragmented, is still very valuable for biodiversity conservation. Recently, road kills of colobus have focused local attention on the plight of this species and the forest as a whole, resulting in the registration of a local environmental group: Wakuluzu, Friends of the Colobus Trust. Wakuluzu’s concern covers Diani in particular and other South Coast forests with colobus in general. At Diani, work to restore the habitat and the connections between forest patches is urgently needed. Local recognition of the value of the forests, for tourism as well as for biodiversity conservation, may help to bring this about.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Diani Forest (Kenya). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/diani-forest-iba-kenya on 23/11/2024.
