Coastal East Africa > The Greater Ruvuma Landscape

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© WWF / Aurelie Shapiro

Few places on Earth match Coastal East Africa’s vibrant and diverse web of life. WWF has been working in this region since the 1960s to protect thousands of plant and animal species, not only for their ecological importance but for their vital role in supporting the lives of more than 30 million people. Here, communities live in close proximity to some of Africa’s most beloved creatures – elephants, rhinos, lions, hippos, zebras and wild dogs. Like the people who live here, these species are attracted to the vast rivers and streams that provide fresh water and help produce arable land. In Coastal East Africa, the linkages between human livelihoods and conservation are readily apparent, and in no place are these dynamics more evident than in the Ruvuma Landscape.

Unique Biodiversity
Encompassing miombo and coastal forests and protected areas in Mozambique and Tanzania, and spanning more than 66.7 million acres, the Ruvuma Landscape is one of the largest unfragmented wildernesses in sub-Saharan Africa. This area is home to endemic species like the Niassa wildebeest and Bohm’s zebra, as well as a large population of African wild dogs and the biggest meta-population of savanna elephants.

The Selous Game Reserve is the core location of the largest savanna elephant population – over 70,000. In northern Mozambique, nearly 16,000 elephants range across the Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces. In total, an estimated 87,000 savanna elephants make their homes in Greater Ruvuma.
This vast landscape includes the largest unfragmented area of eastern miombo woodlands in the world, which transitions into large areas of coastal forest habitat to the east. At least 1,500 endemic plant species and several endemic vertebrate species are found here.

© WWF / Philipp Goeltenboth

Threats to People, Places and Species
Conflict between humans and wildlife is a serious threat to the Ruvuma Landscape. Farmers are being killed while trying to defend their fields from crop-raiding elephants, and elephants are killed in retaliation. Increasing habitat fragmentation that leads to isolation of elephant populations is another serious concern.

In a true bottom-up approach, local communities and governments have asked WWF to scale up the unparalleled successes local people, as well as the government, see in our community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) work. Building on the successes in establishing Mozambique’s Quirimbas National Park and Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas, the WWF Ruvuma program began its work to safeguard the area for future generations in 2006.

WWF’s Commitment in the Ruvuma Landscape
WWF’s work in the Ruvuma ranges from doing basic field science focused on protection of important species, to devising practical applications to reduce human-animal conflict. We collaborate with governments to establish protected areas, train local people as the guards for those areas, and help establish community-based management where resources – including wildlife – are owned by the communities living on the land.

WWF’s specific actions in the Ruvuma Landscape include:

• Launching community-based natural resource management programs around the Selous through the establishment of five Wildlife Management Areas.
• Scaling up community management successes in Quirimbas, including community forestry work, human-elephant conflict mitigation, and agricultural block zoning.
• Empowering communities within Quirimbas National Park to join in fisheries management activities where measurable increases in catch have been reported.
• Facilitating dialogue with local governments and community groups to develop wildlife corridors between Niassa and Quirimbas.
• Establishing baseline biological and socioeconomic indicators for measuring the impacts of our conservation work.

WWF’s involvement in the Ruvuma Landscape entails working with a variety of stakeholders and key partners including local communities, national and local governments, CARE, Flora and Fauna International, GTZ, Peace Parks Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and USAID. Together we are laying the foundation for success in which communities and government jointly maintain the ecological integrity of this magnificent landscape.

© WWF / Philipp Goeltenboth

WWF’s goals for the Rumuva Landscape in the next five years:

• Protect the largest unfragmented wilderness area in Africa through community resource management systems, wildlife corridors, sound zoning and infrastructure development, sustainable tourism, and transformative partnerships.
• Establish and sustainably manage the Selous-Niassa-Quirimbas wildlife corridors to assure the long-term ecological integrity of the natural systems in a manner that enhances livelihoods, safeguards the area’s flora and fauna, and protects natural resources for future generations.
• Ensure that local people benefit from new tourism enterprises and infrastructure development, while at the same time conserving the natural systems that are critical to their well-being and livelihoods.
• Measurably demonstrate the long-term biological and socioeconomic benefits for local people from WWF’s conservation interventions.

Notable Accomplishments

• Reduced conflict between elephants and farmers in Quirimbas. In 2007, 24,000 fields were planted and only 23 were destroyed by elephants – a reduction of more than 90 percent from pre-project levels.
• Began a program to survey and protect African wild dogs in the Selous, home to one-third of all the wild dogs on the continent.
• Piloted community-based resource use and forestry management in Chipanje Chetu.
• Began a program to monitor and document the unregulated ivory trade in northern Mozambique.

Next Steps

• Work with the governments of Tanzania and Mozambique to declare the Selous-Niassa-Quirimbas corridors, securing biodiversity and the livelihoods of local communities.
• Promote new and appropriate tourism development in the Ruvuma.
• Reduce exploitation of forest and wildlife products from current unsustainable levels.