In an open letter published on Science on September 26, 2025, 14 researchers led by Prof Tim Caro of the University of Bristol called for the $8 million (over Sh17.3 billion) Mantuli Luxury Estate project to be moved to a different site that will not harm vulnerable ecosystems.
Pemba. Global environmental scientists have urged the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (Zipa) to relocate construction of a five-star tourist hotel from Pemba’s Ngezi Forest Reserve, warning that it threatens rare plant and animal species unique to the area.
In an open letter published on Science on September 26, 2025, 14 researchers led by Prof Tim Caro of the University of Bristol called for the $8 million (over Sh17.3 billion) Mantuli Luxury Estate project to be moved to a different site that will not harm vulnerable ecosystems.
“The planned resort, though billed as eco-friendly, will endanger ecosystems and endemic species. It will destroy 23 percent of Ngezi–Vumawimbi’s tall trees and a stand of Intsia bijuga, a near-threatened species once thought extinct on Pemba,” they said.
The researchers, including Giacomo Baldesi of the University of Pavia, Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend of the ICCA Consortium in Switzerland and Matthew Clark of Imperial College London, warned that developers have not completed the required Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.
They said the project risks wiping out several endemic plants such as Bulbophyllum, Disperis and Oeceoclades orchids and Sansevieria species, as well as vertebrates including the Pemba flying fox, Pemba scops owl and Pemba pigeon. They also noted the threat to the Pemba featherleg damselfly, found only in Ngezi.
The team advised Zipa to relocate the project outside the 14.4-square-kilometre reserve, which hosts 200-year-old trees.
“The resort’s exclusivity will prevent public access to the beach used by schoolchildren and local fishermen,” they added.
Other signatories include Dr Viola Clausnitzer from Germany’s Museum of Natural History, Dr Klaas-Douwe Dijkstra from the Netherlands, Prof Andy Dobson from Princeton University, and experts from Kenya, Mozambique, France, Italy and Spain.
Their appeal follows growing public opposition in Pemba. During an investment summit in August, Zipa executive director Saleh Saad Mohamed defended the project, saying Pemba needs modern hotels to attract tourists.
“We need more foreign investors to boost tourist numbers and improve Pemba island’s socio-economic environment,” Mohammed said dismissing environmental activists concerns that rapid infrastructure development is threatening the island’s protected areas such as Ngezi Forest.
“Zanzibar offers a wealth of untapped opportunities and Pemba is at the heart of our next phase of investment-led development,” he told over 1,000 participants who attended the event which was officiated by President Hussein Ali Mwinyi.
The former Konde legislator Zawad Amour Nassor said the hotel, which will occupy less than three percent of the reserve, will benefit locals by improving tourism infrastructure.
“This hotel which chops less than three percent of the forest reserve will help improve tourism infrastructure that will allow more visitors to come to Pemba hence benefit residents of this island directly,” Nassor argued.
He stressed that consultations were done through public rallies involving all communities in Konde and that those who are saying that they have no knowledge of the investment are dodgers.
“The biggest challenge that we face with communities is that some individuals rarely attended public meetings called to discuss various issues,” he explained while dismissing concerns that progressive development is a threat to Ngezi Forest Reserve. The international community thinks otherwise.
However, conservationists disagree. “This rare forest with unique species is being destroyed by developers. Our livelihoods are at stake,” said secretary of the Ngezi Natural Resources Conservation Organisation Abdurahman Mbaruk.
He accused developers and Zipa of failing to consult residents before approving the project, recalling that a similar 1990s hotel venture also promised conservation but failed to deliver.
