See the rare colobus monkey@Jozani forest, combine your visit with nearby sites i.e The rock restaurant, Kuza cave, Paje beach
Get a chance to visit home to rare and endangered primates in the world The colobus. Watch them close at their natural habitat.Jozani Chwaka Bay Forest is the only national Park in Zanzibar.A walk at a forest will take approx 2 hours we advise you book a COMBO TOUR
Your tour around the Jozani Forest Reserve will be led by an experienced guide, with good knowledge of the reserve’s flora and fauna. As you follow the park’s network of nature trails, keep an eye out for some of the forest’s residents. As well as the colobus monkey, there are Sykes’ monkeys, bush pigs, Zanzibar suni, tree hyraxes and Ader’s duiker, as well as more than 40 species of bird – not least among them a species of Fischer’s turaco with unusual coloured wings. At one spot in particular, you will usually find two groups of habituated red colobus monkeys, which are no longer disturbed by the presence of humans. As a result, they go about their day-to-day business taking little notice of the humans staring up from below – so it’s often a fantastic place for photographs.
In the south of the forest you can follow a boardwalk deep into the mangrove swamps and find out how this fascinating ecosystem protects the Zanzibar coastline.
There are various plants and trees that are medicinal and are used as natural remedies. There is no need for a guide on mangrove swamp boardwalk as you cannot get lost on the boardwalk leading to only one direction.
A mangrove boardwalk gives tourists the possibility to have a view into the special mangrove habitat which could be enjoyable. Jozani forest is a good place to recharge and is the closest you can get to nature apart from other attractions on Zanzibar.
Jozani National Park info
Historically local people have cut trees and harvested other forest products for many centuries, but commercial use started in the 1930s when the forest was bought by an Arab landowner and a sawmill was built here. In the late 1940s, the forest came under the control of the colonial government and some replanting took place.
Jozani was set aside as a forest reserve in 1952 and, as similar habitats elsewhere were cleared to make way for agriculture, much of the island’s wildlife congregated here. The forest was declared a nature reserve in the 1960s, but despite this the trees and animals were inadequately protected. Local people cut wood for building and fuel, and some animals were hunted for food or because they could damage crops in nearby fields.
Nevertheless Jozani Forest retains much of its original natural character, and exploitation of its natural resources has more or less ceased since 2004, when it was merged with Chwaka Bay to the north and proclaimed as Zanzibar’s first (and so far only) national park. Developed from a partnership between the Zanzibar government’s Commission for Natural Resources and the charity CARE International, with funding from various sources including the government of Austria, the Ford Foundation and the Global Environment Facility.
Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park now has clear targets to protect natural resources and improve conditions for local people and wildlife in the area. It is also a popular destination for day trippers from Stone Town and the east-coast resorts, and revenue raised by tourism plays an important role in its conservation.
Jozani has a fairly good bird population, with over 40 species recorded, although many of the forest birds are shy and therefore hard to spot. Species occurring here include Kenya crested guineafowl (Guttera pucherani), emerald- spotted wood dove (Turtur chalcospilos), little greenbul (Andropadus chalcospilos), sombre greenbul (Andropadus importunus), cardinal woodpecker (Dendropicos fuscescens), red-capped robin-chat (Cossypha natalensis), dark-backed weaver (Ploceus bicolour), golden weaver (Ploceus xanthops), olive sunbird (Nectarinia olivacea) and crowned hornbill (Lophoceros alboterminatus).
Other residents of Jozani include a population of Zanzibar Sykes’ monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis albogularis), a subspecies that is endemic to the archipelago and which you are quite likely to see on a guided walk. The forest is also home to Ader’s duiker (Cephalophus adersi), a species of small antelope found only on Zanzibar and some parts of the Kenyan coast, and the even tinier suni antelope (Neotragus moschatus moschatus). Both are extremely shy and unlikely to be seen. Ader’s duiker is virtually extinct in Kenya now and, listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, its best chance of survival is on Zanzibar Island.
The Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park is a 50 km2 (19 sq mi) national park & only national park in Zanzibar.The forest is a natural pharmacy and truly an amazing source of natural remedies. Every plant or tree cures something. The beautiful thing about the Jozani forest tour is that the height of the trees and palms are just outstanding.
Red Colobus Monkeys
The place is also famous for rare Red Colobus Monkeys and even harder to spot – Zanzibar Sykes’ monkey, a very rare monkey species unique to Zanzibar. Apart from the Red Colobus Monkeys, you may see Bushbaby, 50 different species of butterflies and 40 species of birds are available. The forest is one of the last remaining sanctuaries in the universe of the red colobus monkeys. The forest is 6,207 acres in size. It was declared a nature reserve in the 1960s.
The species were endangered but their numbers have been increasing in recent years. It is estimated that there are now 2,000-2,500 monkeys. They are wild but it is possible to get close to them and they carry on their usual activities as though human visitors do not exist at all – are incredibly relaxed and un-bothersome. The elusive Zanzibar leopard is said to feed here at night – maybe this is the reason for the reserve to only be opened during the day!
It is not permitted to walk off the paths without an official guide so as to protect the wildlife. There is a network of various nature trails leading visitors through the forest. The main trail begins at the park entrance and takes at a leisurely stroll for one hour.