Nyerere Selous – Udzungwa

In the Morogoro Region, along the corridor that links Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Magombera Forest Nature Reserve and Nyerere National Park, the passage of elephants is historical.
But this corridor is also a source of livelihood for plenty of the communities that live in the surrounding villages. Indeed, most of the local population relies on small-scale farming activities such as subsistence and rice crops (at the margin, small businesses are also practiced within communities).
Thus, over the last 50 years, with the development of farmlands, the corridor has been significantly impacted. While it appeared necessary to facilitate its restoration, from the Udzungwa Mountains to the Nyerere National Parks, via the Magombera Forest Nature Reserve, new conservation efforts arised.

To safely manage the regular movements of these elephants, in 2018, the Kilombero Elephant Corridor project, led by the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program (STEP), established a solid governance system between local farming population and the regional and national authorities. In a 186.6 hectares’ corridor, crossed by the villages of Sole, Mang’ula A and Kanyenj, the initiative led to the resettlement of 7% of the concerned villages.
The action plan included : 1/ the revision of local land use plans to incorporate the elephant corridor, 2/ demarcation of the corridor, 3/ the completion of a habitat restoration plan, 4/ community tree nurseries, 5/ wildlife corridor education, 6/ expansion of monitoring of the elephants movements, 7/ solicitation of investment for local entreprises, 8/ recruitment of an all-women community corridor ranger force.

In 2023, the project was supported by the Fundazione Capellino to follow the previous actions and to develop a holistic long-term landscape protection strategy in the foothills of the Udzungwa Mountains in the Kilombero Valley in Tanzania. From then, it became an example of Reintegration Economy, demonstrating that an alternative economic model is possible. As part of this integrated, long-term strategy, the plan acts on several fronts:
*Phase 1 – The restoration of ecological connectivity affected by anthropogenic pressures and intensive agriculture, through the creation of the Kilombero Elephant Corridor (KEC). The corridor connects the Nyerere (Selous) National Park to the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, allowing lowland and mountain elephants from the two parks to transit from one to the other without interfering with humans.
The Fondazione Capellino works alongside a local NGO in the construction of the 13 km ecological corridor and provides monitoring activities, including awarding two grants to a local university for a research project.

*Phase 2 – The holistic strategy of long-term landscape protection through circular economy solutions, to sustainably improve the quality of life of local communities who, in return, will commit to the perpetual care of the corridor and the safety of elephants and other wildlife in the valley. Various actions can be realised with a pool of partners in this direction: a new factory producing bricks from sugar cane and rice waste; a photovoltaic power plant offering renewable energy to the corridor and neighbouring villages, for a definitive abandonment of fossil fuels; solar cookers replacing coal and wood in food preparation. In addition, farmers can be supported in the development of biodiverse farming practices guaranteeing independence to local low-income communities, in parallel with women’s empowerment and education programmes for population containment, reducing the impact of humans on nature.

Next steps include supporting a land use planning process to legally enshrine the corridor and to begin tree planting and other habitat restoration efforts in the corridor. We will also use camera traps to monitor how elephants and other wildlife use the restored corridor.

Also, the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program has continued partnering with the riverain national parks’ authorities for the due management of the corridor. Along Udzungwa Mountains and Nyerere, efforts have been made to build a strong responsive framework to deal with elephant-human cohabitation. Thus, rangers support communities in village land to manage the potential conflicts in the landscape’s area. Thus, the amelioration of the conditions is principally due to the actions that have been implemented such as growing crops that elephants don’t like, using beehive fences to scare elephants away from the crops or camera traps and transects, monitoring and documenting spatial-temporal distribution of elephants within and around the corridor, and quantifies the elephants’ depredation and crop raiding intensity.

Finally, the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) has been very active in the protection of the Selous landscape from 1980’s. In 2017, with the financial partnership of the Tanzanian and German governments in the context of the ‘Selous Ecosystem Conservation and Development Program’ (SECAD), it implemented the “Nyerere-Selous Conservation Project”. With support from the U.S. government, the FZS continue working with the Selous Game Reserve and Nyerere National Park management to further strengthen law enforcement through the training of specialized ranger units. The project looks at strengthening the Game Reserve management through a diverse range of activities (providing baseline ecological assessments, reviewing and updating the General Management Plan and financial plan, developing and implementing management instruments, supporting and advising law enforcement through aerial surveillance, improving the communication system, and ranger training, administering capacity building programs, conducting ecosystem monitoring and providing evaluation frameworks in collaboration with partners, implementing intensive protection measures for black rhinos and establishing ‘Selous Ecosystem Coordination Forum).

In 2021, one of the project’s outcomes were :

1. eekeepers harvested 300 kilos of honey and 44 kilos of wax despite difficult weather conditions.
2. Two aircraft clocked over 300 flight hours throughout the year in support of patrols on the ground.
3. One new patrol vehicle was purchased for Nyerere National Park and two for the Selous Game Reserve.
   A general management plan was drafted for the Selous Game Reserve.