Vulture conservation

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. Belief-based use is another threat facing vultures, where vultures’ parts are used in traditional medicine and believed to cure ailments or imbue partakers with magical powers or bring good luck.   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 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 seeing a decline of 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. Nature Tanzania is engaging local communities in the Makao Wildlife Management Area (WMA), with 181 local community members benefitting from a Community Revolving Fund. Through the CRF, the community members are engaged in environmentally sustainable businesses, which has safeguarded vultures, reducing harvesting vulture parts for belief-based use. Further, the community members are now vulture conservation ambassadors, assisting Nature Tanzania raise awareness about these endangered birds.