aerial shot of selous river system landscape
© Michael Poliza / WWF

RUVUMA LANDSCAPE
WWF GUARDIANS 2023 APPEAL

Helping people and nature to flourish
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The Guardians are a group of loyal and generous supporters who each year help fund a specific and vital area of work with a minimum donation of £1,000.

Over the years, WWF Guardians have been instrumental in helping protect disappearing habitats, fragile ecosystems and endangered species.

Join the Guardians today and you’ll play a crucial role in tackling some of the biggest challenges we face. You’ll receive exclusive updates on how the work you support is progressing and invites to special events and talks around the country. 


Please help us protect Africa's Ruvuma landscape

The Ruvuma Transboundary Landscape is remarkable – and vitally important. Spanning approximately 370,000 sq km across southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique, it’s considered to be one of Africa’s largest, most intact, and relatively unfragmented remaining natural habitats and an increasingly rare natural haven both for wildlife and for people.

Aerial shot of cape buffalo running into river
© Michael Poliza / WWF

LINKED LANDSCAPE

Named after the Ruvuma River, which forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique, this spectacular region spans an area larger than the whole of the UK. It contains a rich mix of important habitats, from vast miombo woodlands to dense coastal forests, rivers, lakes, and other freshwater ecosystems - all supporting local people and an incredible array of wildlife. 

Panoramic shot of Ruvuma
© Katherine Elliott / WWF-UK

Getting the measure of Ruvuma

  • 265,000 sq km of Miombo woodland
  • 70,179 sq km of coastal forest
  • 12,000 sq km Eastern Arc forest
  • 8,128 sq km of grassland
  • 8,000 sq km of montane forest/grassland
  • 500 sq km of Mopane woodlands
  • 300 sq km of rivers, streams, lakes, and freshwater habitats

WONDROUS WOODLANDS

Miombo woodlands are the most extensive type of warm, dry forest in southern Africa and contain an estimated 8,500 plant species, of which 54% are endemic. Miombo is the Swahili word for Brachystegia, a genus of tree comprising a large number of species. The trees are widely spaced due to competition for water in the dry season, which allows sunlight to reach the ground, enabling grasses to thrive which creates grazing opportunities for many mammals.

Looking up at the canopy of trees in Selous
© Greg Armfield / WWF

These incredible woodlands support some of the largest elephant populations in Africa and provide crucial habitat for species such as antelopes, lions, leopards, and wild dogs. Endemic bird species include the Miombo pied barbet, scrub robin, wren warbler, and malachite kingfisher. The diverse flora and fauna also help sustain the livelihoods of millions of people, many of whom are small-scale subsistence farmers who depend on the natural resources around them.

Malachite kingfisher perches on a branch
© John Brice

bursting with life

Ruvuma's flourishing forests and rivers are havens for many species, including African elephants, lions, and wild dogs.

The region has one of the largest elephant populations in east Africa, with an estimated 15,500 in the Selous Mikumi ecosystem.

Aerial shot of elephant clan walking through grasslands
© Martin Harvey / WWF

Powerful and majestic, the king of beasts has no natural predators, but African lion populations are estimated to have declined by over 40% in just two decades. Their main threats are retaliatory or targeted killings to protect people and livestock, as well as decreasing natural prey and habitat loss.

Portrait of male lion in grass
© James Morgan / WWF-US

One of the world’s most endangered mammals, African wild dogs are opportunistic predators that hunt medium-sized herbivores, such as gazelles. Major threats include accidental or targeted killings by humans to prevent wild dogs preying on livestock, diseases like rabies and distemper, habitat loss and competition with larger predators, such as lions.  

Portrait of two African wild dogs
© Martin Harvey / WWF

In the Selous-Mikumi ecosystem alone, a staggering 74% of elephants were lost to poaching in just 7 years - decreasing from around 50,000 elephants in 2006 to as few as 13,000 in 2013

Elephants at waterhole

© naturepl.com / Neil Aldridge / WWF


COMPLEX CHALLENGES

Despite its incredible biodiversity and critical importance, Ruvuma is under intense and growing pressure from a number of threats:

  • Habitat loss and degradation
  • Freshwater under threat from unregulated overfishing
  • Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade
  • Human wildlife conflict
  • Climate change increasing risk of heavy flooding & prolonged droughts

HABITAT LOSS AND DEGRADATION

Planned industrial scale agriculture and increased clearing of land for farming and raising livestock are fragmenting forests and grasslands, intensifying the risk of conflict between people and wildlife. Overgrazing and illegal logging, along with firewood collection and charcoal production are all adding to the problem and are largely due to a rapidly growing population and increasing migration to the region. 

Dead tree felled
© Michael Poliza / WWF

The threats are huge and intensifying with every moment, but the shoots of a new and flourishing future are emerging, thanks to the people who call Ruvuma home.


Leading the way

With our partners and local communities, we’re working to ensure the Ruvuma Landscape can be protected and well-managed to nurture all the life it sustains. 

Restoring and safeguarding precious habitats and resources, tackling poaching, and reducing conflict with wildlife involves the hard work, commitment, and collaboration of  partners, including local government authorities, civil society organisations, other NGOs, the private sector, and local communities.  

The involvement of local people is crucial to this, and the Guardians can also support a range of community-centred approaches – from expanding community-managed forests and conservation areas to developing new livelihood opportunities. 

Local people in forest© Mpoli pictures / WWF-Tanzania


Partners in prosperity

With our partners, we support community-run Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) that protect wildlife and promote long-term sustainable rural economic development, through the management of natural resources. 

To help protect the WMAs’ natural resources, Village Game Scouts are helping to monitor wildlife and reduce conflict between animals and people.  Recruited from their communities, Village Game Scouts work with district authorities to patrol the local area, monitoring the presence of elephants and other wildlife and record signs of any illegal activities, such as logging. 


jumbo surveillance

Keeping tabs on elephant movements as they migrate across the landscape can help inform and improve conflict management plans to keep people and elephants safe. In the Selous-Niassa wildlife corridor, we’re working with the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute and the Tanzania Wildlife Authority to monitor 15 herds of elephants in 10 conflict hotspots. 

elephant walking across plains with satellite radio collar on
© Austine Okande

Monitoring the elephants involves fitting some of them with satellite collars, which emit regular signals. This makes it possible to follow their daily and seasonal movements and foraging patterns and measure the efficiency of deterrents for reducing human wildlife conflict.  

By introducing harmless yet effective deterrents, such as beehive fences, communities can create natural barriers that safely discourage elephants from raiding crop fields.

Man inspects bee hive barriers between farms
© Lameck Mwamifu/WWF-Tanzania

nurturing involvement

Our Foresters for the Future programme is helping to inspire the next generation of community conservationists.

This innovative programme teaches primary school children how to plant and nurture tree saplings, raising their awareness of conservation at the same time. So far, six village tree nurseries are being supported by the students, with 13,500 tree saplings raised during last year’s rainy season. 

children working with tree saplings in foresters of the future programme
© Azaria Kilimba / WWF-Tanzania

seeds of change

In Mchakama Village, Tanzania, the Maendeleo women’s business group are hard at work making sunflower oil. This promising new venture involves 20 local women who use a press donated by WWF and our partners. Together, they process the seeds from sunflowers they’ve grown into oil, which they can sell for a higher price.

Previously, many of the women had no paid income and they see the business as a life saver. As well as creating their own oil, they also process seeds from other community members, adding another stream of income.

lady poses in front of seed press
© Wide Angle Media / WWF-Tanzania

Please pledge your support today and help build a resilient, interconnected landscape where people and wildlife can flourish.


HOW YOUR DONATION WILL HELP

Your kind donation could:

  • Support monitoring across the landscape, enabling us to better understand species movements and see how elephants and other animals are adapting to threats such as new roads and agricultural expansion.
  • Help train more Village Game Scouts to reduce conflict between wildlife and people.
  • Strengthen community-based initiatives to manage natural resources, so people can reap the benefits of sustainable timber harvesting and other livelihood ventures, whilst protecting wildlife and crucial habitats.
  • Support increased collaboration between Tanzania and Mozambique to develop a strategy for securing the future of the Ruvuma Transboundary Landscape.

Together, we can help communities continue their transformational journey towards a safe, productive, and resilient transboundary landscape that can sustain people and wildlife long into the future.


lioness with cub
© Richard Barrett / WWF-UK

As a Guardian you’ll receive exclusive updates on the progress of this work, as well as invitations to special events around the country. For more information call our Guardians team on 0800 038 1030, or email guardians@wwf.org.uk