2030 Circle Programmes: Securing East Africa's Savannahs
2030 Goal
By 2030, the ecological integrity and connectivity of the landscape will be protected and restored, ensuring that 80% of the area maintains healthy ecosystems to help support sustainable social and economic development.
The great migration
Every year, millions of wild animals take part in one of the natural world’s supreme wonders: the great migration. Species such as wildebeest, gazelle and zebra make the epic circular journey in search of grazing and water. The spectacle takes place across the plains of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, an area of land spanning the southern region of Kenya and northern Tanzania (SOKNOT).
SOKNOT faces many threats, like rapid land-use changes, habitat fragmentation and destruction, infrastructure development, high population growth in key wildlife areas, poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and climate change. These issues jeopardise the resilience of communities, natural habitats, and wildlife that rely on them.
Conserving critical wildlife corridors in the transboundary landscape
This programme focuses on conserving critical wildlife movement corridors across this transboundary region. Stretching from Lake Victoria to the Indian Ocean, the SOKNOT transboundary area covers over 160,000km2.
As well as providing a home for millions of animals, including threatened and endangered species such as the elephant, black rhino, lion, cheetah, and African wild dog, the landscape is famous for its iconic conservation areas, including the national parks of Serengeti, Maasai Mara, Tsavo and Kilimanjaro. It also contains wooded and forested areas that are important for climate change mitigation, act as water towers for rivers, provide vital habitat for species, and support local livelihoods.
The collective action of the 2030 Circle could help safeguard this critical landscape, so that people and nature are thriving and living in harmony.
The story so far
Maasai pastoralists and other local groups have lived successfully on the landscape with healthy wildlife populations for centuries. They share open rangelands and forested areas between the national parks, which are critical wildlife corridors for species that need to move across this landscape, following traditional migration routes and dispersal patterns and for preserving traditional pastoralist systems. The survival of much of the wildlife relies on access to this land, however, the whole area – the wildlife and local communities – face a range of immediate and increasing threats including accelerating habitat loss and fragmentation, unsustainable land use and planning, land privatisation, climate change, conflict with wildlife and poaching.
Across Kenya and Tanzania, the downturn in tourism has led to job losses and reduced income for local communities.
We must act urgently to avoid losing critical wildlife habitats and corridors, and precious natural resources, which would have devastating consequences for local communities and wildlife.
The future impact of the 2030 Circle collective
Through strong partnerships and community-driven conservation, our work supports the efforts of local people to keep landscapes healthy, benefit from conservation, and continue to be guardians of wildlife for future generations.
With traditional knowledge and cultural practices embedded as a foundation across all our conservation initiatives, WWF and our partners on the ground are focussed on:
- Thriving wildlife species: Working with local communities to ensure key wildlife populations are stable or recovering and wildlife can move and migrate freely and safely across the landscape between core habitats to access food, water and breeding sites.
- A living landscape: Ensuring that by 2030, 80% of the SOKNOT landscape is climate resilient and healthy, with connected conserved habitats, sustainable agricultural and livestock practices, and delivering critical ecosystem services for people and wildlife.
- Sustainable community livelihoods: A strong people-centred approach that fosters a thriving bio-economy, significantly enhancing people’s wellbeing, livelihoods, and job opportunities while supporting the ecological and cultural integrity of the landscape.
- Enabling transboundary governance: Engaging with governments, project partners and other stakeholders to secure functional management and coordinated transboundary operations, with robust policy and legal frameworks in-place.
The 2030 Circle can play a crucial role in protecting this globally significant landscape
Our SOKNOT programme is vital for preserving one of Earth's most iconic landscapes — maintaining biodiversity and connectivity and protecting rare and endangered species while significantly improving people’s wellbeing, food security and livelihoods.
As part of the 2030 Circle, you can help to protect this vital landscape, make a lasting impact on the environment and secure a sustainable future for East Africa’s savannah for the generations to come.
Thank you
To become a 2030 Circle member or to find out more, please get in touch. Contact Luisa Berry, Senior Philanthropy Manager - 2030 Circle, by email: 2030circle@wwf.org.uk or phone 01483 412492.
There’s still time to make this the decade that we changed course - for climate, for nature, and for future generations. We look forward to hearing from you and finding out how, together, we can secure the future of the natural world.