Travel Guide Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

We highly recommend this nature tour, which is a welcome change from the beach and the tightly-focused tours. The tour is divided into three sections: mangrove walk, forest walk and Red Colobus monkey watching. Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park is a 5,000-hectare protected area that links the existing forest near the village of Jozani with a mangrove area near Chwaka Bay. It is managed by the 9 villages in the area, from which the local guides originate. This forest is mainly made up of mahogany trees(mamamtondo in Swahili), most of them gigantic, planted here for the exploitation of this precious red wood in the last century, but preserved since the creation of the park in the 1960s. Among the trees is a remarkable mahogany tree, over 200 years old! Like the Ngezi forest in Pemba, the forest also contains ancient millet-grinding machines. A special feature is the presence of around 300red colobus monkeys, which you can easily observe as they are accustomed to the presence of man. Other species endemic to the island can be observed here with a bit of luck along a forest path, such as bush babies, over 50 species of butterfly and 40 species of bird. Another star of the forest is the tree hyrax, a rather large rodent with only four toes on its front legs and only three on its hind legs! The mangrove (vegetation growing in salt water) is exceptionally well preserved, forming an incredible ecosystem. The mangrove is part of the Chwaka marine area, where dolphins regularly come to hunt in waters protected from fishing and rich in tuna, marlin and shark.