Tarangire: crossroads of Tanzania
Tarangire National Park falls within the Tarangire ecosystem that covers almost 20,000 square kilometers, and which stretches from the central Masai steppe all the way to the Kenya border. The park is an acacia-savanna mosaic, dominated by large baobab trees and rolling hills dotted with flat-topped acacias. The park is particularly well known for its large herds of elephants: there are over 2,600 elephants in Tarangire, and it is not unusual to see large aggregations of over 300 individuals.

Project objectives promote a conservation strategy for the Simanjiro Plains aimed at reducing poaching establish a wildlife monitoring program and anti-poaching patrols in the Simanjiro Plans continue our study on the long-term demographics and population dynamics of the Tarangire elephant population radio collar three bull elephants to determine movement and migration patterns in the ecosystem continue to investigate the extent of crop raiding in areas adjacent to the park train Tanzanian scientists to become independent researchers provide financial support and technical advice to the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum develop a detailed distribution atlas for all large mammals in Tanzania Links: Wildlife Conservation Society African elephant fact sheet

Tarangire witnesses one of the great annual migrations in Africa. During the wet season as many as 50,000 large ungulates disperse to feeding areas and calving grounds outside the park. The animals remain in the dispersal areas until the ephemeral rain water dries up, whereupon they return to Tarangire and the permanent water it affords through the Tarangire river. This large annual migration of wildlife is driven by mineral gradient within the ecosystem: the soils inside the park are too deficient in phosphorus to sustain lactating females of large ungulates, which are forced to leave the park to the mineral-rich calving grounds of the Simanjiro plains to the east and the Natron plains to the north. During the past 40 years, these migration routes have come under increasing threat. Increased human settlement and permanent cultivation has closed off 5 or the 9 main migration corridors since the early 1960s, and the others are increasingly threatened.

Collaborative efforts to keep wildlife corridors open
The Tarangire Elephant Project seeks to work with a range of stakeholders including local communities, government wildlife organizations, and local tour operators and hunting companies, to seek solutions to alleviate the threat to Tarangire and its wildlife. The project has encouraged the development of conservation easements in the villages within the main ungulate calving grounds. Through this system, villages receive payments from a consortium of tour companies that operate in the Tarangire ecosystem, in return for zoning land for cattle grazing pasture. In these areas, all cultivation and permanent settlement is prohibited. In this manner, income from tourism is transferred to local communities that promote traditional wildlife-friendly practices. Local game scouts are hired within these communities who monitor wildlife numbers and provide an important presence on the ground that helps deter poaching and commercial bushmeat activities. Our goal is to encourage sufficient land use agreements with local communities that ultimately a corridor linking the park and the calving grounds is protected, in a manner that is beneficial to all parties. Without such agreements, the integrity of the Tarangire ecosystem is under severe threat.

Project objectives

• promote a conservation strategy for the Simanjiro Plains aimed at reducing poaching, increasing wildlife-based revenue for the local villages, and seeking ways to ensure wildlife-compatible land use of critical dispersal areas
• establish a wildlife monitoring program and anti-poaching patrols in the Simanjiro Plans using local game scouts
• continue our study on the long-term demographics and population dynamics of the Tarangire elephant population
• radio collar three bull elephants to determine movement and migration patterns in the ecosystem and identify corridors at risk
• continue to investigate the extent of crop raiding in areas adjacent to the park, and train local farmers to use easy and inexpensive deterrent methods
• train Tanzanian scientists to become independent researchers
• provide financial support and technical advice to the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum, which promotes a sustainable and rights-based approach to managing natural resources in Tanzania
• develop a detailed distribution atlas for all large mammals in Tanzania, with the aim of producing a government-endorsed plan for their conservation within three years

Quantifying success
Community conservation work is, by nature, a long, slow process, and success can often be difficult to quantify. The protection of a piece of land for wildlife use may be the culmination of many years of work. In the short term, we hope to create an enabling environment where there is mutual trust between our project personnel and local villagers. This allows TEP to carry out work on village land. In the longer term, TEP hopes to protect land outside the park by providing an economic incentive for protecting important wildlife areas on village lands.

Our human-elephant conflict work addressed a problem that is only likely to escalate as the populations of both species increase. By working with Tanzania National Parks and villages on this issue, we can increase dialogue between the parties and gradually work towards addressing core problems, such as land use planning in areas adjacent to the park.

Supported since 2000