Comoro Islands rainforest and biodiversity conservation project

Hugh Doulton

Comoran rainforest is being rapidly degraded, mainly due to banana underplanting. We aim to help produce plans to slow this process, which is putting at risk many endemic and red data book species. Habitat and biodiversity information from the Comoros is poor. We will update bird and butterfly surveys, conducted over 10 years ago, correlating data with habitat and using these indicator taxa to identify the richest areas for endemic biodiversity. Interviews with locals about land-use and yields will help us formulate strategies for preventing forest destruction. Results will help determine priority areas for conservation, and ways of effecting such conservation, and should also supply data on understudied and rare species.