Selous Trust, Tanzania

Location: Selous Game Reserve Project leaders: Fraser and Kes Smith Project partner: Selous Trust Rhino species: Black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) in the northern sector; possibly Diceros bicornis minor south of the Rufiji River Rhino numbers: ± 19 in the northern sector, approximately 25-40 in the souther sector Size of protected area: 47,000 km2 Activities: Anti-poaching, monitoring Support: We help fund the ongoing anti-poaching and monitoring work of the Selous Trust in the northern sector Funding partners: Chester Zoo, Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Tanzania’s spectacular 48,000 km² Selous Game Reserve (SGR) is the second-largest wildlife reserve in the world. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.

It conserves an ecosystem of high biodiversity including the world’s largest populations of elephants, buffalo, hippo, crocodile and wild dog. The area north of the Rufiji River, which runs through the Reserve, is used for tourism and photographic safaris, while the southern sector is responsibly managed by hunting concessions. The rapidly developing tourism sector is accounting for an increasing proportion of the country’s GDP. The Selous Game Reserve is a valuable commercial resource for the Government of Tanzania, and its sustainable conservation and management is therefore a priority.

Of particular interest to Save the Rhino is the large, indigenous and free-living rhino population inhabiting the SGR. Until the mid 1970s, the Selous’s black rhino population numbered some 3,000 animals. However, the rise in oil prices and the consequent new-found wealth in the Middle East, led to a greatly increased demand for rhino horn. This illegal trade was responsible for an African-wide poaching epidemic, and by 1990 it was thought that the Selous’s rhinos had become extinct. However, in 1995, fresh rhino tracks were discovered (by Richard Bonham) and, in response, a Tanzanian NGO called the Selous Trust was established as a partnership project with the Tanzania’s Wildlife Division (DoW) and the European Union, which in 2000 awarded the project a three-year grant.

Since then, the rhinos and their habitat are protected by a stakeholder partnership in initiative between DoW and the Selous Trust, and has been supported by Save the Rhino since the late 1990s. The Selous Trust is working towards conserving the rhinos and their ecosystem in the long term by carrying out anti-poaching and monitoring activities and by local building capacity.

To date, the Selous Trust has focused on the sector north of the Rufiji River, and has established that there are at least 19 Eastern black rhino, including two calves. Exploratory surveys south of the River have found signs of at least another 25 rhino, thought to be the South Central subspecies, indicating that the area may uniquely be home to two different rhino subspecies. Rhino specialists state that a minimum viable population (for breeding purposes and genetic diversity) is ideally 20 or more, and the Selous’s population meets this requirement. Given these facts, this project has great potential to contribute significantly to rhino conservation continentally. It has been rated by the IUCN’s African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) as “Continentally Important”, and has the potential to soon become “Key 1” – rated (the highest rating on a continental level, of which there are currently only five in the whole of Africa). The Selous’s rhinos account for 70% of Tanzania’s black rhino numbers and the population is the largest indigenous, free-living population in the country and is vital for the recuperation of the species on a global level.