Preserving natural habitats

Threats to Africa’s diverse habitats pose one of the greatest risks to the continents biodiversity

Preserving natural habitats

Biodiverse ecosystems with an abundance of wildlife require a diverse range of habitats. Increasing competition for land and resources driven by the demands of a growing society mean habitats are increasingly under threat.

Tusk works with projects that help promote sustainable management of natural resources, enabling communities to safeguard their livelihoods and wellbeing whilst sharing their landscapes harmoniously with wildlife.

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Tusker elephants in Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area monitored by Tsavo Trust’s Tusk-supported Tembo Teams. Credit: Tsavo Trust

Developing Tsavo's community ecotourism potential

Tsavo Trust, Kenya

The Tusk funded Tembo teams are on the front-line of protecting Tsavo's famed 'Big Tuskers'.

A strategic planning session for the Tsavo Trust team in 2021 brought renewal and a drive to achieve with the identification of several targets which will ensure their work in the Tsavo Conservation Area (TCA) is sustainable and has a meaningful impact both for the wildlife and communities that live there.

One key facet of sustainable impact is sustainable funding and the organisation will continue to explore new and long-term partnerships with donors and tourism operators to bring sustainable revenue into the TCA. With threats to wildlife continually on the rise, the secondary impacts of Covid-19 have been devastating for marginalised communities. Tsavo Trust continues to work closely with communities bordering the protected area to reduce these pressures and ensure communities are equitable owners in conservation.

Over the past five years, Tsavo Trust has played a stewardship role in the development of the Kamungi Conservancy that borders onto the northern boundary of Tsavo West National Park. Tsavo Trust will start the work of establishing a tourism facility that will bring a revenue generation stream for this vulnerable community. This direct financial income will help the conservancy members manage their own revenue and with this build their own capacity to develop and start their journey to self-reliance. Kamungi is located just 20km from Mtito Andei right off the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, where travel and visitor footfall are consistent and plentiful. Land for this has already been secured.

Preserving natural habitats

Continued

Building capacity in Gashaka Gumti National Park

Africa Nature Investors Foundation (ANIF), Nigeria

In 2021, a key highlight for Gashaka Gumti National Park where the Africa Nature Investors (ANI) works, was the successful training, equipping and deployment of 65 rangers, with Tusk funding, who then commenced some of the first systematic patrols across 30% of the park in decades. This has led to a dramatic drop in illegal logging, mining and forest fires and animal populations are beginning to rebound.

Last year ANI in partnership with the National Park Service, carried out a comprehensive socioeconomic survey of the park's neighbouring communities. This has started the development of a partnership between the two. In the coming year ANI will commence support for various livelihoods to help secure their support for protection of the park. This partnership is critical to the sustainability of their work in Gashaka Gumti National Park.

They further plan to establish a new highland outpost in the mountains. This will enable them to recruit more rangers from the local communities. The rangers will then be deployed on ranger patrols across another 30% of the park. This is particularly exciting since the montane grasslands and cloud forests are arguably the most important habitat in the park. They are extremely rare for West Africa and make Gashaka Gumti very special in conservation terms – and yet have been virtually unprotected up until now. This will be an enormous step forward for the project!

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The management of the Gashaka Gumti National Park is working on partnerships with communities neighbouring the park Credit: Africa Nature Investors Foundation

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A mountainous area of the Gashaka Gumti National Park in North East Nigeria Credit: Africa Nature Investors Foundation