of the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor in Tanzania
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The Development and Management of the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor in Tanzania |
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 Link to www.selous-niassa-corridor.org Project Area The Selous - Niassa wildlife corridor is a landscape linkage between Africa's largest protected areas: The Selous Game Reserve of Tanzania, acknowledged as a World Heritage Site and home to Africa's largest elephant, buffalo, sable and other wildlife populations, and the Niassa Game Reserve of Mozambique, well renowned for its large elephant population. The corridor covers 8000 km2 of sparsely settled land over a distance of 160 km in the Districts of Namtumbo and Tunduru in Ruvuma Region, southern Tanzania. Consisting of natural miombo woodland it encompasses a wide variety of wildlife habitats with wooded grassland, substantial areas of open savannah, granite inselbergs, seasonal and permanent wetland, and riverine forests along numerous rivers and streams draining either towards the Rufiji or Ruvuma rivers. The area supports a large number of globally significant, threatened and CITES listed large mammal species. The dimensions of the corridor will allow even the largest herbivore, the African elephant (Loxodonta Africana), to migrate between the two largest elephant ranges of the world, the Selous and Niassa Game Reserves. Background The Selous-Niassa miombo woodland eco-system of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique is one of the largest, and for the global biodiversity most significant, trans-boundary natural ecosystems in Africa, covering over 154,000 km2. Through a network of protected areas of various categories of protection, an area of 110,685km2 of this ecosystem is conserved. Two Game Reserves are critical for the protection of this globally important area; the Selous Game Reserve, which covers 47,000km2 making it the largest protected area in eastern and central Africa, and the Niassa Game Reserve of Mozambique, one of Mozambique's largest protected area covering 42.400 km2. The Selous-Niassa Wildlife corridor provides a significant biological link between the two reserves and consequently for the miombo woodland eco-system. But there are severe threats to its continued existence, which if left unattended, will block this important link. Those threats are: the uncontrolled and unplanned conversion of land for agricultural use, ribbon development along the major roads, the unsustainable and illegal use of natural resources including the high value poaching of ivory across the national boundaries and uncontrolled fires. The Sasawara Forest Reserve, located near the centre of the corridor is, with 385 km2, a core area for the protection of biodiversity amid increasing human activity. Heavy encroachment and destruction due to conversion of forest for farming and settlement are already taking place in the East of the Reserve. With the high human population growth rate and its impact on the mostly still intact natural habitat, the corridor area is predicted to be fragmented and destroyed unless adequately managed. In 2000 the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor Research Project was launched in order to provide key information for: (1) the establishment of legal protection for the wildlife corridor in the appropriate locality through the identification of migration routes, (2) the establishment of sustainable quotas for consumptive wildlife utilisation, and (3) strategies that minimize the potential for conflict between wildlife and local communities. Community based conservation has become a cornerstone of Tanzania's strategy to manage biodiversity outside core protected areas. With the Selous Conservation Programme GTZ promoted and co-financed the establishment of more than 50 pilot village Wildlife Management Areas to develop a buffer-zone around Selous Game Reserve, thus already successfully conserving the northern part of the corridor. Objectives The overall purpose of the project is the long-term conservation of community, species and genetic biological diversity of the miombo forest ecosystem within the protected areas of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania by developing an effective wildlife corridor. The immediate objectives are: 1. To conserve the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor by the establishment of a network of village wildlife management areas (WMAs) that are sustained, protected, managed and utilised by the local communities, with the assistance of the Local Government and Wildlife Division. 2. To benefit the livelihood and security of villagers of communities with WMAs from wildlife management, and promote the long-term conservation of the corridor. Project Strategy To achieve conservation and development in the southern sector of the Selous-Niassa corridor, the project is taking a community based conservation approach based upon experience in the northern area of the corridor. This aims to empower communities managing the land for wildlife conservation purposes with the subsequent benefits of improving livelihoods, conserving biodiversity and maintaining the integrity of the wildlife corridor. Specifically the project will develop local competencies in sustainable resources management within the corridor and promote conservation and biodiversity management by improving the human capacity to manage wildlife resources. In compliance with the Wildlife Policy of Tanzania and its relevant laws and regulations, these actions aim at empowering people at local level and involving them in all aspects of conservation programmes. Expected Outputs 1. A greater awareness of, and capacity for, the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources within the corridor amongst local communities and local and district authorities. 2. The creation of reliable ecological and socio-economic databases for the corridor to serve as decision-making tools for communities and local authorities. 3. A network of WMAs to be established and managed effectively throughout the corridor. A formal agreement with regular transfer of information between the Wildlife Authorities of Tanzania and Mozambique prevents the high value poaching across the national borders. 4. The Sasawara Forest Reserve to be protected through community participation. 5. The dissemination of best practice for community managed protected areas. Partners The project "The Development and Management of the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor" is executed by the Wildlife Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of Tanzania, financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with its implementing agency United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. The German Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit International Services (GTZ-IS) is the executing agency. The GTZ, with its project "Community Wildlife Management (CWM)" is co-financing the development of the northern part of the corridor. The activities are conducted by the local government, staff of the Wildlife Division and the administration of Namtumbo and Tunduru Districts. The District Councils have employed an international wildlife expert, placed by the German Centre of International Migration and Development (CIM), to coordinate and implement these activities. Law enforcement support is received from the Southern Zone Anti-poaching Unit, based in Songea, and the Selous Game Reserve. The Selous-Niassa Corridor Research Project, financed by the German Government under its Tropical Ecology Support Programme (TOEB), is carried out in cooperation with various institutions. These are the Wildlife Department, the Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Institute for Zoo Biology & Wildlife Research Berlin (IZW) and the former Selous Conservation Programme, now Community Wildlife Management/GTZ.  Brochures
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