Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary, Tanzania

 

Managed by the legendary conservationist Tony Fitzjohn of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust, the Mkomazi Game Reserve is the first and only rhino sanctuary in Tanzania. Currently nine black rhinos (one calf was born only recently) live in the Sanctuary, and the animals are protected by a team of dedicated anti-poaching patrols.

Location: Mkomazi National Park
Project leader: Tony Fitzjohn
Project partner: George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust
Rhino species: Black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli)
Rhino numbers: 8
Size of protected area: 3,270 km2
Activities: Anti-poaching, monitoring, Environmental Education programme – Rafiki wa Faru
Support: We focus on the new Environmental Education programme, Rafiki wa Faru, that links local schoolchildren with Tony Fitzjohn’s conservation efforts
Funding partners: Chester Zoo

This project is at an exciting stage, as Mkomazi has only recently been declared as a fully protected National Park which no doubt will increase public interest and tourist numbers. In conjunction with this change, an Environmental Education programme (Rafiki Wa Faru), kitted with a special bus, has been developed for area. Many African children don’t see wildlife in its natural environment (let alone rhinos), although tourists visit their counties are exactly for that reason. The new programme means that local children now too have opportunity to access the National Park, and are able to form a long-term link with their environment. The bus also visits remote schools to teach pupils about the environment and what they can do to protect it.  

The 3,270 square kilometre Mkomazi National Park (MNP) forms the southern extension of the Tsavo Ecosystem into north-eastern Tanzania, and together with Tsavo National Park in Kenya, MGR forms one of the largest protected areas in Africa. Due to inadequate funding and levels of protection in the 1970s and 80s, the wildlife and habitat of MNP deteriorated significantly through invasion by livestock and heavy poaching. This included the loss of all resident black rhino and virtually all the elephant.

In 1989, the Government of Tanzania (GoT) invited the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust (GAWPT) to work with them to undertake a rehabilitation programme for MNP, including restoration of habitat and re-introduction and breeding programmes for the highly endangered wild dog and black rhinoceros. The recovery of MGR has been enabled by the Tanzanian Wildlife Division (DoW) and the GAWPT through extensive rehabilitation of the infrastructure of the reserve, with work activities bolstered by local community involvement and projects linked to wildlife protection and maintaining the integrity of the MNP. The GoT gazetted Mkomazi, formerly a Game Reserve, toNational Park status in 2008.

The black rhinoceros of northern Tanzania (and Kenya) is of the eastern subspecies / ecotype (Diceros bicornis michaeli). With only two very small and highly vulnerable populations of this taxon remaining in Tanzania (Ngorongoro CA, Serengeti NP) it was recognised by the DoW that there was a clear need for the establishment of a new secure breeding population in quality habitat within former range. Ideally the population could also be used to supply surplus animals subsequently to reinforce existing populations. The habitat of MNP and the Tsavo ecosystem in general has a very high carrying capacity (in terms of density) for black rhinos, far exceeding those of southern Africa. With a rich diversity of favoured food plants and vegetation cover based on rich volcanic soils with a bimodal rainfall pattern, the rhino densities recorded by Goddard in Tsavo (including MNP) in the 1960s indicate densities typically one order of magnitude higher that those that could be carried by most rhino conservation areas in southern Africa. Consequently, the cost-effectiveness of rhino conservation in terms of production of rhinos per unit area would also be equivalently high, an important consideration given the expense of construction and maintenance of fencing.