Kilimanjaro has always been a magical place for adventurers and scientists, and it continues to be a source of fascination today. Standing at almost 5900 metres and with seven different climate zones, from the African savannah to Arctic glaciers, Mount Kilimanjaro is a unique landscape and home to numerous plants and animals that exist nowhere else in the world.
But the climate change is having a profound impact on the region. Glaciers are melting and lack of precipitation is taking its toll on the entire ecosystem. Intensive land use as a result of overpopulation at the foot of the mountain is also causing enormous damage.
1400 metres high up on the border of Kilimanjaro National Park is the research station of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Over 30 scientists from different research centres, equally represented by Germany and Tanzania, are looking at how lack of rainfall as a result of climate change and overpopulation are impacting the Kilimanjaro ecosystem.
