The Serengeti ecosystem is an important stronghold for vultures, but belief-based killings through poisoning are having catastrophic effects on their populations. With funding from the Darwin Initiative (29-013), we are engaging traditional healers to address this conservation challenge.
Whether soaring majestically in the African skies or greedily ripping and tearing through a carcass, vultures are some of the magnificent birds found in Africa. While vultures are often viewed as sinister, signifying bad tidings or even death, the vital role that vultures play in the environment is irreplaceable. Acting as nature’s own clean-up crew, these endangered birds remove carcasses, which, when accumulated in the environment, would have a negative impact on environmental and human health.
However, these majestic birds are now faced with extinction, with some species for the continent declining up to 97% over the last 50 years. Today, 7 out of 11 African vulture species are threatened with extinction due to various threats. Poisoning is the major cause of vulture mortalities, accounting for more than 60% of vulture deaths on the continent. In some instances, poachers lace carcasses with poison to kill vultures as they alert authorities of poaching activities. In other cases, vultures are killed unintentionally when herders lace carcasses with poison to kill predators in retaliatory killings, and vultures die after feeding on these carcasses.
Belief-based use is another threat facing vultures, where vultures’ parts are used in traditional medicine and believed to cure ailments, imbue partakers with magical powers or bring good luck.
With funding from the Darwin Initiative through BirdLife International, Nature Tanzania is implementing “an integrated approach to protecting wildlife from poisoning in Mara-Serengeti” project in Makao Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The project is engaging local communities and traditional healers in 9 villages within the Makao WMA towards addressing the belief-based killings of vultures.
Plant-based alternative
As part of our ongoing discussion, engagement and collaboration with traditional healers to address the belief-based killings of vultures, a plant-based alternative was found and is now being promoted. This resulted from a series of meetings and workshops between Nature Tanzania and traditional healers on saving vultures from extinction. The plant-based alternative was named by the traditional healers, who have been using it for some time following the scarcity of vulture body parts and the legal risks that come with poisoning vultures in the protected areas. The named plant is claimed to have similar power to that of vulture heads in traditional medicine. Hence, traditional healers are now being promoted to using the Biophytum crassipes plant (locally known as Viloto) as an alternative to vulture’s head.
On the ground, one of the traditional healers, Mr Deus, is now a vulture conservation champion promoting the use of plant-based alternatives. Mr. Deus is also a supplier with a shop in Meatu selling traditional medicines to fellow traditional healers. Instead of selling vulture body parts, Mr. Deus now only sells the plant-based alternative.
Community Revolving Fund (CRF)
To facilitate alternative livelihoods for youths (the poachers), we established a community-owned micro-finance model, the Community Revolving Fund (CRF), to provide access to soft loans. So far, more than 181 local community members have benefitted from the established CRF. Through the CRF, the community members are engaged in environmentally sustainable businesses, which are safeguarding vultures and reducing the harvesting of vulture parts for belief-based use. Further, these community members are now vulture conservation ambassadors, assisting Nature Tanzania in raising awareness about these endangered birds.
