Globally threatened dragonflies (Odonata) in Eastern Africa and implications for conservation

Abstract

This paper presents the status of East African dragonfly species (Odonata) listed globally as threatened on "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species". The area considered includes Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Malawi. From a total of 323 species known from these countries, 31 are listed in one of the categories "Near Threatened", "Vulnerable", "Endangered" and "Critically Endangered", while nine are marked as "Data Deficient". Ecoregions with high numbers of threatened species are the Ethiopian and East African montane forests, Eastern Arc forests and Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic. The highest species diversity is found in the Albertine Rift montane forests ecoregion. Information concerning the distribution, conservation status and biology of these species is given and conservation issues are discussed.

Keywords: freshwater, biodiversity, conservation, IUCN

Journal of East African Natural History 100(1&2): 89–111 (2011)