Almost 60 per cent of wildlife corridors along the Tanzania-Kenya have disappeared, it has been revealed.
The loss of key areas of habitat connecting wildlife populations is attributed to human encroachments and human related activities in the areas.
Professor Noah Sitati from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said the findings were from their report after conducting a study on the Southern Kenya-Northern Tanzania (SOKNOT) Integrated Trans-boundary Wildlife Corridor.
He observed here at the last weekend that human activities were to blame for the disappearance of wildlife corridors along the border of the two countries.
This was further fueling Human Wildlife Conflicts (HWC) which has over the years resulted to deaths and destruction of crops, according to the Wildlife Species Expert.
“If this unchecked, we could possibly be staring at stealth extinction of wildlife species, poor yields as a result of crop damage and Injuries and death of humans,” warned Prof Sitati at the weekend, during the closure of the BMZ Climate Facility Project.
He said that linking core wildlife habitats would play a crucial role in restoring and preserving biodiversity, allowing movement between important habitats to maintain genetic diversity in wildlife populations.
In his rejoinder, a Coordinator with the Southern Kenya-Northern Tanzania (SOKNOT) Integrated Trans-boundary Wildlife Corridor, Rolf-Dieter Sprung underscored the importance of proper land use plan in addressing loss of wildlife corridors and habitats.
Through the 13.8bn/-(€5.2million), the project provided communities with patrol equipment, monitoring and human rights trainings for village game scouts in eight conservancies and four Wildlife Management Areas(WMAs).
WWF in partnership with TNRF implemented the BMZ Climate Facility Project “Protection of key Ecosystems, Increased Resilience and Adaptation for their Sustainable Use by Local Communities in Southeast Africa”.
In Tanzania, the project is implemented in the northern part specifically in four Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) namely; Enduimet and Lake Natron in Longido District, Ikona and
Makao in Serengeti and Meatu districts respectively and Mkomazi wildlife corridors (Ziwani and Kwakao villages [Karamba-Ndea]) in Same and Mwanga districts covering over 60 villages.