Stretching from the plains of Tanzania and Kenya to the mist-shrouded montane forests of Uganda, this dynamic landscape supports the world's most spectacular concentrations of large mammals.
The Great Migration: The region hosts the largest overland animal migration on the planet, with two million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles cycling through Kenya and Tanzania.
Extraordinary range of biodiversity: The Rift Valley supports a stunning and very varied mix of habitats—ranging from open plains to high-altitude montane cloud forests, and including acacia bushland, miombo dry tropical woodland, freshwater lakes, sofa-rich lakes and volcanoes.
Primate refuge: The high-altitude forests of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are strongholds for the endangered Mountain Gorilla and Eastern Chimpanzee.
Stronghold for apex predators: The open savannas provide hunting grounds for Africa's most iconic predators, including lions, cheetahs, leopards, and endangered African Wild Dogs.
Urgent threats
Habitat fragmentation: Blocked migration routes, expanding roads, and new fencing are cutting animals off from seasonal feeding, watering and breeding grounds, and potentially restricting genetic diversity.
Human-wildlife conflict: As human settlements expand near park boundaries, elephants, lions, and local communities frequently clash, resulting in retaliatory killings and reduced support for conservation.
Urban wild meat consumption: The illegal hunting for wild meat is putting wildlife populations under increasing threat, while the widespread use of snares is cruel, indiscriminate and particularly dangerous for large carnivores.
Livestock overgrazing: Widespread and uncontrolled overgrazing by livestock herds degrades grassland and strips plant cover, leaving bare soil vulnerable to wind and water erosion. It also disrupts the water cycle, leaving land vulnerable to drought.
WildAid's approach
In Tanzania, our work is focussed on promoting community-led conservation. For the future of conservation, it is vital to find a way for humans and wildlife to live alongside each other. We believe Tanzania can be a model for this for the rest of Africa.
We also understand that communities that earn money from keeping wildlife alive are more likely to protect and conserve it, leading to a reduction in hunting, poaching, and retaliatory killings of iconic species.
WildAid works with the Honeyguide Foundation and the Community Wildlife Management Area Consortium to supporting community wildlife management areas. WMAs have been established to protect wildlife and their habitats on key migration routes and dispersal areas outside core protected areas, while providing economic opportunities for local communities through wildlife-based businesses.
The consortium aims to establish 12 financially self-sustaining WMAs, with income from tourism and carbon credits funding their activities and encouraging communities to preserve wildlife resources.
Read more about our work in Tanzania here.
WildAid has played a pivotal role in Uganda's efforts to promote conservation aand protect its wildlife. We have worked closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to raise awareness of and support for the Uganda Wildlife Act, and to support media reporting on conservation issues. We have also developed an organic "smelly elephant repellent" that has proved effective in deterring crop raiding.
Read more about our work in Uganda here.
Across East Africa, we have also worked to raise awareness at key ports and border crossings on the dangers caused by wildlife trafficking. We want the people of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania -- and in particular port and border workers in those three countries -- to "join our team" by reporting and combating wildlife crime.