ACHIEVEMENTS
The Ruaha Carnivore Project team and the extent of our activities have grown significantly since the project’s inception in 2009. By 2017 RCP had:
- Taken over 1000 people into the Park on educational trips
- Engaged over 30,000 attendees through our wildlife DVD nights
- Trained and employed 15 Lion Defenders across seven village zones, and achieved certification by Lion Guardians in Kenya
- Trained and employed 24 local villagers as community camera-trap officers across 12 villages
- Conducted the first trial of specialised livestock guarding dogs in East Africa: we placed 9 Anatolian Shepherd livestock guarding dogs, and kept one female at camp for breeding
- Trained and equipped 25 local drivers from eight lodges in Ruaha National Park to collect data on large carnivore sightings
- Collected ecological and demographic data on over 12,000 sightings of large carnivores
- Published 15 papers and book chapters using RCP data
- Provided input for Tanzanian policy briefs and other conservation outputs
- Reinforced over 120 livestock enclosures (bomas), protecting nearly 16,000 livestock every night, worth over US$2.2 million
- Prevented or stopped 50 lion hunts through our Lion Defenders, who also found over 5,200 lost livestock worth approximately US$750,000 and reinforced 330 bomas using traditional means
- Provided educational supplies to 10 twinned schools
- Funded over 30 pastoralist children through secondary school as ‘Simba Scholars’
- Established the first conservation performance-payment initiative in this landscape, through our community-camera trapping
- Provided over US$145,000 of benefits to local communities, including approximately US$8,500 worth of veterinary medicines, over US$30,000 worth of educational materials, US$20,000 worth of healthcare supplies and US$86,000 of additional benefits to local communities
- Established camera-trap grids in the Park, Wildlife Management Areas and village land, generated over 2 million images, provided data on 49 mammal species, and used that data for students and for conservation planning
- Helped 7 students (including three East African students) enroll in university-level education, including three Masters and three PhD students
- Co-founded the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance with partners across East Africa
- Received multiple awards for our work
- Increased international awareness of carnivore conservation issues, particularly in the Ruaha landscape
- Significantly reduced depredation and carnivore killings in the core study area: in the core villages, depredation has been reduced by over 60% and carnivore killings by over 80%
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