GC Project: Ngorongoro World Heritage Site, Tanzania

Community-based Park and Wildlife Protection

Global Conservation has just launched a new Global Park Defense Project in Ngorongoro World Heritage Site, Tanzania, led by African People and Wildlife. We are supporting the NCAA (Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority) rapid response anti-poaching teams and Warriors for Wildlife, a new group of community leaders assisting NCAA to protect wildlife and nature. We are looking forward to achieving excellent results for conservation in Ngorongoro over the coming years.

Threats to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

With large tracts of wildlife habitat and corridors also supporting communal land use, the landscape is porous and remains a particularly critical area for collaboration between protected area and village authorities that seeks to mitigate the risks and negative impacts associated with the illegal wildlife trade.

Poverty and livelihood factors are important issues when it comes to poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and human retaliation against wildlife. Poverty levels in rural areas of Tanzania are estimated at 33%.

Critical species of concern are being targeted for the following reasons:

• Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) are critically threatened across Africa with poaching to supply the illegal trade in rhinoceros horn.
• Tanzania has experienced increased poaching of elephants (Loxodonta africana) and African lions (Panthera leo) over the years to supply the illegal trade in ivory and lion bone and claw.
• Leopard (Panthera pardus), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), wild dog (Lycaon pictus), and giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) are also threatened with hunting and poaching to supply the trade in unique wildlife skins.
• Large carnivore populations, including the African lion and the leopard, attack local livestock and are additionally threatened with intense human retaliation in the form of shooting, spearing, and poisoning

Protecting One of the World’s Most Biodiverse Landscapes

Supporting Rapid Response Anti-Poaching Teams and Community Warriors for Wildlife Networks  

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (8,292 km2) in northern Tanzania represents one of the world’s greatest and most important reservoirs of large mammal biodiversity, including a significant number of wild species targeted by the illegal wildlife trade. 

A core component of the world famous Ngorongoro-Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site where human communities of over 90,000 people reside alongside magnificent wildlife populations. 

With support from Global Conservation and the Elephant Crisis Fund, African People & Wildlife and its partners, including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and local communities, will foster communication and collaboration between trained, rapid response anti-poaching teams managed by the protected area and a specialized network of community Warriors for Wildlife —creating an enabling bridge between local pastoralists and wildlife authorities. 

The Eastern Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli) population found in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is rated by the IUCN/SSC African Rhino Specialist Group as continentally key and extremely valuable for the survival of the subspecies, and is the rarest of the three black rhino ecotypes in Africa.

Global Conservation’s support of this important project is an investment in one of our world’s most diverse and ecologically important places, ensuring the continued development and practice of conservation best practices that marry strong community engagement and wildlife protection with technology-based solutions.

 “I talk with my community about how we can come together to create long-lasting solutions for living with wildlife. Because I’ve created a lot of trust within my community, I see a bright future for big cats in this region.”—Elihuruma Lothi, African People & Wildlife Warrior for Wildlife

The project will work with the NCAA to train and support up to 12 zonal, rapid response anti-poaching teams, who will also specialize in African People & Wildlife's unique community engagement approach. Enhanced community involvement and outreach facilitates improvements in human-wildlife conflict mitigation, sustainable natural resource management, and critical species monitoring and protection — in this case, with an emphasis on elephants.

Strengthened, proactive, protected area patrol teams — equipped with state-of-the-art technology informed by the Global Park Defense model — who also engage more productively with local community members are more effective at reducing illegal activities while mitigating human-wildlife conflict, a key factor influencing local people’s perceptions of the link between wildlife benefits and wildlife conservation. With capacity building in risk management and conflict resolution, the NCAA anti-poaching teams will improve their collaboration with communities while fulfilling their law enforcement missions.

The NCAA rapid response teams will also work hand in hand with a network of community Warriors for Wildlife, who serve as local human-wildlife conflict mitigation officers — playing a pivotal role in preventing retaliation against wild animals and offering guidance and solutions for peaceful coexistence — and who also act as the local eyes and ears on the ground reporting illicit wildlife activities. 

Key project activities and needs supporting NCAA rapid response anti-poaching teams and community Warriors for Wildlife in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area include:

• Training NCAA zonal rapid response teams in effective community engagement and human-wildlife conflict mitigation;
• Supporting NCAA zonal rapid response teams with state-of- the-art equipment and wildlife monitoring systems as well as regular field training in anti-poaching;
• Building a community network of Warriors for Wildlife for anti-poaching and human-wildlife conflict mitigation support, supplied with state-of-the-art equipment and regular training;
• Providing technology, resource, and equipment support including laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, GPS, data packages, radios, monitoring platforms (e.g. EarthRanger), trail cameras, and wildlife surveillance packages;
• Anti-poaching patrol support for routine and rapid response to all incidents — regular patrols, poaching incidences, human-wildlife conflict, and community emergencies.

Critical project funding will target trainings, anti-poaching patrol costs, support for Warriors for Wildlife, data collection, and key equipment and technologies.

About African People & Wildlife

African People & Wildlife’s programs and priorities reflect their commitment to an inclusive and holistic approach to biodiversity conservation, accomplished hand-in-hand with their partners – government authorities, local communities, and NGOs. They include a wide range of interrelated initiatives in natural resource management, wildlife and habitat conservation, human-wildlife coexistence, sustainable and local micro-business development, and environmental education.

Because of their efforts, rural Tanzanians are implementing and leading community-driven conservation projects and initiatives across six critical landscapes of unparalleled ecological significance. More than 100 local community guardians conduct all monitoring, tracking, and anti-poaching efforts associated with the protection of critical wildlife species and habitat, directly contributing to a sustained increase in wildlife populations over the past nine years in a targeted monitoring area.

Human-wildlife conflict has dramatically decreased as the result of community-driven solutions that balance traditional knowledge with cutting-edge science and technology, reaching more than 18,000 rural people. 

Local governments in more than 20 communities (representing 100,000+ people) have mobilized to make timely, sustainable decisions about the management of their own grasslands and livestock, embracing an approach that emphasizes the combined value of social, economic, and ecological returns.

In addition, thousands of rural youth have participated in a wide range of environmental education programs and initiatives, encouraging the next generation of conservation leaders to step forward. And for the first time, 1,840+ empowered women from across the region are earning an income through economic development initiatives, diversifying and improving their families’ livelihoods while protecting the environment.