Gain and loss: Human and environmental wellbeing – drivers of Kilimanjaro’s decreasing biodiversity

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0334184 October 29, 2025 4 / 23 homegardens, a unique form of agroforestry prevalent on the southern and southeastern slopes. These homegardens feature four vegetation layers: Under a sparse tree layer (mainly Albizia schimperiana) bananas are grown, under the bananas coffee trees and on the ground vegetatables, maximizing land use efficiency and biodiversity, with over 500 plant species (most of them forest species) and endemic arthropods [30,31]. Steep, dry slopes in the valleys of the submontane cultivation zone are covered by species-rich mown Hyparrhenia grasslands, consisting of Hyparrhenia rufa, Satureia abyssinica, Crepis carbonaria and Microchloa kunthii. A detailed description of these land use and vegetation types is presented by [17,23,31–33]). According to the Köppen and Troll/Pfaffen climate classification system (in [34]), the study area experiences a seasonal dry tropical climate influenced by the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. Rainfall occurs bi-modally, with rainy seasons from March to May and November. Rainfall and temperature vary with altitude and exposure to the dominant winds from the Indian Ocean [23]. Mean annual temperatures range between 15 and 25°C , while annual precipitation ranges from 400 to 2800 mm. Southern and eastern slopes receive more rainfall due to wind exposure from the Indian Ocean compared to the northern and western slopes [23,35]).

Fig 1. Study area. Study area (outer thick grey line) with delineation of the wards, situation of 2022 with 94 wards (grey lines), five districts (red lines; MM: Moshi Municipal), the border of KINAPA (green line), international border (dashed/dotted line), location of the map in Fig 10 (yellow line), Namalok nature reserve (orange line) and the available vegetation plots (red dots). Map source: Reprinted from World Imagery Basemap (Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community) under a CC BY license, with permission from Esri Deutschland GmbH, original copyright 2024. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0334184.g001