Wildlife Conservation Projects
1: Conservation education project
Long-term change can best be achieved through accelerating change in people’s attitudes towards wildlife. Conservation education is in that way an essential part of field conservation projects.
Our project entails the development of conservation education lesson plans for formal and informal youth education. This includes classroom based and outdoor environmental activities. The materials address specific, local and regional environmental issues.
The project’s ultimate goal is to create a community of knowledgeable and empowered citizens. Currently, we work with schools, teachers, educators and young people in Simanjiro district to instill environmental awareness through innovative, community-based learning experiences. Our youth environmental education programs directly impact children through lessons, wildlife clubs, field trips and a range of outdoor activities.
Help us reach more students and youths in communities adjacent to protected areas in Tanzania, contact us at info@taccei.org to arrange your donation.
2:Turning Killers into Warriors of Coexistence project
Elephant conservation is a national priority in Tanzania, as the country holds the largest population of elephants in East Africa. In addition to their important ecological role as keystone species, elephants are recognized as an important source of national income via nature and wildlife tourism in Tanzania. Over 1 million people visit Tanzania’s Protected Areas every year, contributing to the tourism industry that constitutes 14% of Tanzania’s GDP (WTTC 2015).
However, elephants can also have negative impacts on people and livelihoods, especially in communities that share space and resources with elephants. Thus, ensuring long-term human-elephant coexistence in Tanzania requires mitigation of the negative impacts of elephants on people, and vice versa.
TACCEI’S Human-Elephant Coexistence program works towards enhancing capacity for coexistence through working with farmers to form crop damage reduction projects, farm-based crop protection techniques such as smelly repellent, horns and flash lights as well as conducting education and awareness-raising events to explain elephant behavior, provide context for human-elephant interactions and provide advice on how to stay safe around elephants.
The project aims to achieve two main objectives:
Firstly, the project will focus on reduced human-elephants conflicts including people’s deaths and retaliatory killings in ten villages surrounding the park in the south-eastern side. The project will employ an integrated approach of community-based conservation. By establishing youth groups (Vijana na Tembo) that will be responsible for monitoring of elephants in village lands, we’re going to build their capacities on understanding elephant behaviors and equip them, with necessary tools needed to safely push the elephants out of farms during the night.
The second objective of this project is to achieve an increased crop yields by 90 percent in our study area by 2023 and in the following years. As an organization, we believe that when crop loss to elephants reduced, the mortality rate for both people and elephants will be reduced as well.
As an organization, we’re generally aiming at enhancing human – elephant coexistence in our study area non-lethal methods that guarantee the safety of elephants and the community.
Furthermore, as a youth-led organization, we believe in working and strengthening youths from the Maasai communities who were once regarded as the Morans (community’s warriors) to be elephant warriors who will take a lead to protect both elephants and communities. Donate today to help us create a balance between communities and elephants in Tanzania.