Jeannette Hanby

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a vast area in northern Tanzania that contains spectacular wildlife, landscape, and geological formations. It occupies 8300 km2 (3200 square miles) of territory on the western edge of the Rift Valley and adjacent to Serengeti National Park. The NCA encloses the enormous Ngorongoro Crater, a caldera formed 2.5 million years ago by a collapsed volcano (the largest unflooded caldera in the world). The conservation area also encloses Olduvai (Oldupai) Gorge, where the Leakeys made important fossil finds of hominids from over the last 2 million years. The NCA is not a national park, but rather, "a pioneering experiment in multi-purpose land use" (p. 2). It seeks to protect and integrate use of the region by and for wildlife, people (primarily the Masai), forestry, paleontology and archeology, education, research, and tourism.

This 100 page booklet offers a detailed guide to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of value to anyone interested in this fascinating region. Most of the book focuses on the landscape, flora, and fauna of each of the distinct ecological environments of the NCA. Among these are the highlands and forest of the southern and eastern region; the Ngorongoro Crater (and the lake, forest, and swamps it contains); other major craters; the vast Serengeti and Sale plains north of the Ngorongoro highlands, with the large lakes and gorges they contain; and Olduvai Gorge. In each area, the guidebook describes and illustrates major types of animals (mainly mammals and birds with some reptiles), as well as plants (trees, grasses, flowering plants). The book also covers the NCA's geological history, the occurrence of various hominid species during the past 2 million years, and its occupation by our species during the past 10,000 years. Several distinct groups of hunter - gatherers and pastoralists have lived in the area. In fact, its current residents, the Masai, are recent immigrants who wrested the land from the Datoga in the 1800s.

This guidebook is beautifully illustrated, with numerous pen and ink drawings as well as color photographs. These illustrations cover the major types of animals and plants to be found, and are of fine quality. The guide also includes information for visitors and recommendations for further reading.

Jeannette Hanby's book offers an excellent introduction to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area that is likely to attract new visitors to East Africa. It also would serve as an indispensible field guide for the tourist, and to inform those who have not visited the region.… (altro)