Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Dzombo hill, like Mrima (IBA KE018), is an igneous intrusion into the Triassic sandstone of the surrounding coastal plain. The hill rises abruptly to around 470 m, with a lower summit at 400 m to the west. The rainfall is 900–1,100 mm/year, with considerable additional mist and dew on the upper slopes. Dzombo is covered by undifferentiated coastal mixed forest, wettest on the south-eastern slopes. To the north and north-west, the forest grades into drier woodland and scrub. Large trees include
Combretum schumannii,
Lannea welwitschii,
Cola clavata,
Ricinodendron heudelotii, Scorodophloeus fischeri,
Tamarindus indica,
Newtonia paucijuga,
Sorindeia madagascariensis,
Diospyros mespiliformis and
Manilkara discolor.
Dzombo was designated as a Forest Reserve in 1941, and Kaya Dzombo as a National Monument, within the Forest Reserve, in 1992. The forest is considered sacred by the local community, with the grave of a Digo ruler, or Kubo, near the summit.
See Box and Table 2 for key species. The globally threatened and restricted-range
Anthus sokokensis has recently been discovered, and is presumably resident. Dzombo has a rich avifauna, with 35 forest-dependent species recorded; more are likely to be listed with further surveys. Regionally threatened species include
Stephanoaetus coronatus.
Non-bird biodiversity: The threatened small mammal Rhynchocyon petersi (EN) occurs; it is restricted to a small number of East African coastal forests. Dzombo holds a number of rare plants, with 36 taxa listed as rare in Kenya, including the endemic Ziziphus robertsoniana and an undescribed species of Uvariodendron.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Dzombo is designated as a National Monument and considered sacred by the local community. This affords it some protection. However, it is increasingly under threat from agricultural encroachment (which is already considerable), unsustainable timber and pole extraction, bark stripping of trees for binding materials, and firewood collection. At present, vehicle access into the forest is difficult and Forest Department control is minimal. The steep topography of this site probably discourages commercial loggers from exploiting it, although there has been heavy poaching of
Combretum on the lower slopes for splitting into building poles. In the longer term, encroachment is likely to become the most serious threat as the demand for land increases. In the past, fire has been used to open up this site for easy clearing for agriculture; frequent fires on the south-western slopes have turned forest into grassland.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Dzombo Hill Forest (Kenya). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/dzombo-hill-forest-iba-kenya on 23/11/2024.
