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The Matthews Range of mountains rise up from the dry ground of northern Kenya, filled with lush green plants like a tropical island standing above the otherwise plain and boring land. This is why the mountains are described as a “sky island”, cut off from the land around then like an oasis in the middle of an ocean. As a result the mountains have been allowed to develop in their own way, free from the influence of humans. Now people want to protect the mountains from the harmful influence of people, but first they need to understand the plants and animals that live there. The scientists who were asked to do research in the mountains almost instantly found a catalog of bats, rats, frogs and plants they had never seen before.

The only people who live near the mountains are the Samburu people, who live in tribes on the surrounding grasslands. For many years they have left the mountains alone, only going there when they really need to, such as in moments of drought or when they have needed to collect special plants for traditional medicines and remedies. Scientists from Kenya and other countries now want to understand the plants and medicines used by the Samburu people to better understand how to protect them.

Quentin Luke is a Kenyan botanist who was invited by a U.S. conservation society to study the area. He explained that they wanted to better understand the mountain environment and the creatures that live there.”We want to document a biological inventory of these hills. We also want to work out the level of threat to the ecosystem,” he said. After one hike through the mountains Mr. Luke had a bag filled with plants he had collected; amazingly plants he had never seen before. In the following fortnight he had found over 150.