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East Africa
In Focus
The lay of the land
Distributed along and about the Great Rift Valley, the East African mountains extend from the Ethiopian Highlands in the north through Tanzania to the south. They form a cup around a high-altitude plateau, with the Rwenzori range at its western edge and, at the east, bounteous independent mountains and the chain of isolated ranges referred to as the Eastern Arc. On the plateau and penetrating into the Rwenzori Mountains are the important Great Lakes. They include Lake Tanganyika, Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu and, most significantly, Lake Victoria.
The montane climate of the East African mountains makes them much cooler and wetter than surrounding lands. Many peaks are snow-capped and precipitation can be high, especially in the Eastern Arc and Rwenzori where rainfall can exceed 3,000 millimetres per year. The Eastern Arc contain patches dense with flora and fauna, and the Rwenzori are home to areas of thick afro-alpine forest. The Ethiopian Highlands have been almost entirely stripped of their original forests.
Who needs the Eastern African mountains?
The mountains of East Africa support tens of millions of people of numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, providing them with sustenance, energy and a living. The population of the East African sub-region is overwhelmingly rural – in some countries more than 90 percent – and a large proportion lives in or below the mountains. Inhabitants are predominantly poor and depend on the mountains for grazing and farmlands, water for drinking and irrigation, fuelwood, and livelihoods from forest products such as medicinal plants. Several large cities are found among the mountain lowlands.
The mountains are vital not only to the East African sub-region but also beyond. They are the source of water for a number of critically important rivers, most notably the Congo, the Ubangi and the Nile, which provide freshwater and hydroelectric power to countless millions. The mountains also yield national export revenue from cash crops, especially coffee, and from the mining of diamonds, gold and other minerals. Tourism, particularly mountaineering, has brought income to mountain communities from abroad.
