Seven years of FOSS4G research and education at the foot of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania: results and lesson learned

Tropical forests are facing unparalleled rates of deforestation and habitat degradation and in the last decades this phenomenon is leading to loss of species and populations that is occurring even inside protected areas. The limited amount and the heterogeneous nature of monitoring data available to assess habitat trends and hence design mitigation strategies represents one of the most serious challenge. In the last years, remote sensing and GIS techniques and modeling have helped to monitor deforestation and to integrate field data at a local or global scale allowing to produce useful scenarios for planning. Standardized Ecological monitoring in the field and an effective geospatial data processing are therefore indispensable to try put in place a strategy to reverse the trend especially in those countries where the situations are dramatically changing due to demographic explosion and rapid socioeconomic development. Moreover, these rapid changes have a strong effect not only on biodiversity but also on human food security and other different ecosystem services that are indispensable for human societies. The Udzungwa Mountains of southcentral Tanzania form the largest massif of the Eastern Arc Mountains and are one of the single, most important areas in Africa for biodiversity conservation. The forests are home to thousands of endemic species, including relatively large mammals such as two monkeys (Udzungwa red colobus and Sanje mangabey) and the giant Sengi. Since 2011 the DICAM of the University of Trento has collaborated with MUSE – Museo delle Scienze (Trento, Italy) on a number of research and education activities in the Kilombero valley, at the foot of the Udzungwa mountains, Tanzania, using FOSS4G. In this area MUSE co-manages UEMC (Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre of Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania) in partnership with TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks) and the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and has established since 2006 a long-term research and conservation programme. The research activities in the forest were mainly focused on primate monitoring for conservation combining field work and processing of satellite data and ecological proxies. To monitor the exposition to domestic pollution (CO and PM) of local village population we carried out a sampling in Mangula village through a set of self built Arduino based sensors. The education activities were focused on spreading the use of FOSS4G in the formation of field ecologists, master and PhD students and experienced researchers from all over the world. Special training sessions were carried out for Tanzanian ecologists. Five editions of the international summer school: Tropical rainforest biodiversity: field and GIS tools for assessing, monitoring and mapping were held at the UEMC facility. The aim of the education activities was to offer new tools to manage environmental data regarding vegetation and animal populations and to widen the horizon of the learners opening a window on the variegated world of FOSS4G. Combining the experience in biodiversity monitoring of MUSE in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park (UMNP) and the consolidated FOSS4G teaching experience of DICAM, the training aim to provide ecologists with tools for data collection, data analysis and GIS-based mapping of key biodiversity components in forest parks with a special focus on arboreal primates through line-transect census, terrestrial medium-to-large mammals through camera-trapping and large mammals through counts of signs and tracks along defined routes. The aim of this work is to present and discuss the use and application of FOSS4G in research and education activities in the Kilombero valley focusing on the results obtained and the lessons learned during this experience.