Mt Elgon Integrated Conservation and Development Project commissioned aerial photography of the 215,570 ha project area in March 1999. From these photographs, digital maps of land cover on Mt Elgon were produced in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service, the Forest Department and Photomap (Kenya) Limited. Summary statistics of land cover on Mt Elgon in 1999 were derived from these maps.
Digital maps of vegetation cover on Mt Elgon in the 1960s were prepared in the Project's Geographic Information System from topographic maps produced at that time. A comparison of vegetation cover on the mountain in the 1960s and 1999 shows that indigenous forest cover declined by a third in this period, from 53,281 ha (49% of the protected area) to 35,140 ha (33% of the protected area). In the same period, the area of shamba on the mountain increased from zero to 9,582 ha.
Moorland on the upper reaches of the mountain is probably the most important vegetation type on Mt Elgon from a conservation perspective. Continuation of its decline recorded in this study could have grave consequences for survival of species endemic to this vegetation type.
