| Overview : The Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) has committed funds to support strengthening the Protected Area Networks in Southern Tanzania; by implementing measures that will contribute to improving the effectiveness of National Parks in addressing threats to biodiversity conservation. The project therefore aims at creating a coordinated landscape management approach in the Greater Ruaha and Greater Kitulo-Kipengere landscapes to serve as a shield against human-induced pressures on southern Tanzania’s threatened biodiversity. In addition, the project will provide planned, targeted and effective support to the operational capacity of core protected areas within those landscapes. These two landscapes will be managed for the conservation of biodiversity and landscape values, including aligned revenue generation opportunities and enhanced economic performance, for ecosystem services (which are better managed at landscape level), for optimum ecosystem functioning, and for sustainable protected area management. The project entails the creation of active and functioning inter-sectoral District land management coordination mechanism between TANAPA, district authorities and the Wildlife Division (WD) and will also involve planning, implementation, and monitoring by key state and civil society partners. The resulting coordination mechanisms will be used primarily for integration of management of NPs and broader landscapes in Southern Tanzania in both the Greater Ruaha and the Greater Kitulo-Kipengere landscapes through ensuring both that biodiversity management in National Parks, and wildlife migration corridors and dispersal areas is factored into decision-making governing land use management and that operational capacity is sufficiently enhanced to manage PAs effectively. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tanzania and TANAPA, the key implementing partners in the project seek to engage a qualified expert/consultant to carry out mapping and ground truthing for the Greater Ruaha and Greater Kitulo-Kipengere landscapes, southern Tanzania. The obtained information and generated data will form baseline information for the landscapes and provide insights on the trend of land cover and land use changes occurred, with a general focus of enhancing sustainability biodiversity assessment and conservation efforts by protected areas in the southern circuit. |
