The Biota East Africa Launch

The Kenya Wildlife Service will on August 24, 2010 host the launch of the BIOTA East Africa Atlas at its headquarters in Lang’ata, Nairobi. The Atlas is an output of the Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis (BIOTA) in Eastern Africa project whose theme is ‘Conservation and sustainable use of East African rainforest ecosystems’. The project is done in collaboration with the relevant East African institutions responsible for research, nature conservation, and development in rural areas.

The purpose of the Atlas is to increase awareness of the vulnerable East African rainforest ecosystems, enhance sustainable management and conservation as well as contribute to scientific understanding of the ongoing change processes and resulting patterns.
BIOTA East Africa links a set of strictly coordinated thematic and geographical analyses of biodiversity changes in the East African highland rain forests over time. Projects are centered on Kakamega and Nandi Forests in Western Kenya, and Mabira and Budongo Forests in Uganda.
The atlas will contribute to making research outcomes widely visible and provide a comprehensive set of information needed in environmental education as well as inform policy formation.

Based at the Kakamega Forest since its inception in 2001, the BIOTA project is a collaboration between KWS, Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) with funding from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).