Tanzania Forest Services Agency management plan. The Mt. Rungwe Nature Forest Reserve (MRNFR) is a reservoir of the species heritage of Tanzania and the world at large. The area demands greater sensitivity in management interventions as well as abating threats as it is host to rare, endemic and endangered flora and fauna. The Reserve is host to two of the world’s twenty-five rarest primates, the Kipunji and the Rungwe galago. It harbours important antelope including the very rare Abbott’s duiker.  The Reserve hosts a rich diversity of plants including those that are endemic to the Eastern Arc and the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Mt. Rungwe Nature Forest Reserve is also a key water tower in the region providing water to countless villages and towns for domestic, agriculture and industrial use in Mbeya, Rungwe and Kyela Districts. Providing this water through other means would be a costly endeavour and beyond the means of most of the communities currently benefiting from this service. MRNFR also has a long historic and cultural link with the people (Safwa, Nyakyusa and Kinga) around the Reserve. By any standards and with reference to the importance of its unique biodiversity components and ecosystem services, MRNFR is small in size pointing to the need for buffer areas to augment habitats in the small reserve as well as corridors for connectivity with other reserves. This suggests a critical role and responsibility for surrounding communities and other neighbours to ensure conservation of the reserve through participation in reserve management as well as commitment to land use practices that are compatible with conservation in their areas.