A long wall has appeared beside an old rubber plantation on the western edge of Ngezi-Vumawimbi Forest Reserve, one of Pemba’s key nature destinations, close to Vumawimbi beach.
By my observation, the wall runs for more than two kilometres and was built rapidly by WIPI Group with bricks made in Makangale village. The trucks have gone, but a faded sign remains. It advertises the proposed Mantuli eco-resort, showing 130 houses and swimming pools, and setting aside nearly a quarter of the reserve.
The map I saw appears to place the proposed resort inside the reserve, but it does not show a western boundary where the wall now stands. The head of ZIPA, Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority, told me Mantuli would be built only in the rubber plantation, but did not provide the requested map.
I have also observed two further long walls attributed to WIPI Group in Kisakasaka and Fumba on Unguja. Does the Pemba wall match the project boundary described to communities and government agencies? Until it does, the absence of clear answers will deepen public concern.
Serious concerns
The wall matters because barriers can change how people, wildlife and public officials use a landscape. Local people have told me that it has made it harder for forestry officers to patrol parts of the reserve, for families to visit ancestral graves and for residents to collect deadwood for cooking. They fear it will restrict animals moving between forest and feeding areas to the west, leaving passage only for the smallest creatures.
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These are serious concerns that require a transparent response, not silence. The author reports that they are shared by conservationists, scientists, representatives of some foreign embassies and many Pembans.
They also matter in the context of a current conservation programme, funded through the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, which is working with communities and forestry staff to strengthen reserve management, patrols and buffer-zone mapping.
Pemba needs investment and tourism can create jobs. But it must not undermine the ecosystems and public places on which sustainable tourism depends.
No substitute
Ngezi-Vumawimbi is Pemba’s largest remaining area of natural vegetation. A 2026 Oryx survey recorded at least 350 plant species, around one-fifth new to Pemba, and confirmed a small, threatened blue-duiker population.
Its Vumawimbi coastal section has a canopy dominated by Intsia bijuga, a near-threatened tree. Researchers say it is the only coastal forest in East Africa known to be dominated by this species.
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Based on ongoing work, I believe at least eight plant species may be new to science, and 80 occur nowhere else on Pemba. Published research is more cautious, but has already described Afzelia corallina, a micro-endemic tree from Ngezi-Vumawimbi.
The reserve also supports four Pemba-endemic bird species, the Pemba flying fox and other vulnerable wildlife. This is not empty land awaiting a profitable use. Its value lies in its rarity.
The resort has been presented as eco-friendly. Yet the label sits uneasily with the prospect of replacing much of the Vumawimbi evergreen coastal forest, perhaps the last in East Africa to escape the chainsaw. A 2025 report on an open letter by 14 researchers, including myself, said that the development should be moved to a site that does not harm this vulnerable ecosystem.
There are differing accounts of the project’s footprint. Researchers said it could affect 23 per cent of Ngezi-Vumawimbi’s tall trees; former Konde legislator Zawad Amour Nassor said it would take less than three per cent of the reserve. The approved site plan and environmental assessment should therefore be public.
Public trust
The debate is also about Vumawimbi beach. For generations, families, school groups and visitors have used its five-mile stretch of sand, including at weekends and religious holidays.
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Researchers have warned that an exclusive resort could limit access to a beach used by local people, including children and fishers. It would be a grave loss if Pembans were separated from a natural place that forms part of their collective heritage.
A resort does not have to be abandoned. It can be moved to a location that does not place irreplaceable forest, wildlife and public access at risk. That approach would protect biodiversity while allowing investment to proceed, and it would show that development in Pemba is being done with local people rather than around them.
Pemba does not need an “eco-resort” that cuts into the forest that makes it special. It needs tourism that protects the island’s natural wealth, keeps its beaches open and earns the trust of the communities who call the island home.
The Mantuli project should therefore be relocated away from Vumawimbi and Ngezi. And the questions around the wall must be answered.
Professor Tim Caro is a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist and conservation botanist at the University of Bristol in the UK. He has conducted research in Tanzania for the past 30 years and can be reached at tim.caro@bristol.ac.uk. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
