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Projects implemented by the Rangewide Programme

Southern Africa

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Painting the map red: Exploring opportunities for restoration of cheetah within Southern Africa.
(A workshop help at the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria on the 14th of June 2011)
(endorsed by)  (with support from)

In recognition of the fact that a number of areas of Southern Africa have been identified as recoverable for cheetah during the six national action planning workshops that have taken place, the Southern Africa office of the Range Wide Planning programme for cheetah and wild dog conservation convened a meeting to discuss opportunities for restoration of cheetah within Southern Africa. The meeting focussed on countries with source populations of cheetah, namely South Africa and Namibia. Discussion was focussed on which cheetah populations within these countries (captive bred, captive held and wild) would be appropriate for the different areas identified as possible recovery areas within the region.

The meeting was productive and well attended by relevant government and conservation NGOs as well as PAAZAB and the IUCN Reintroduction Specialist Group. Categories of cheetah available for reintroductions were agreed upon and it was decided that a taxon specific set of guidelines for cheetah under the broad IUCN Reintroduction Guidelines would be drafted by the Southern Africa office of the range wide programme. This set of guidelines will then be disseminated to all government wildlife agencies and relevant conservation NGOs to assist all future restoration efforts within the region. The guidelines will be drafted by the Dec 2011.

All presentations given at the meeting can be downloaded from below;

Introduction to meeting_1 (PDF - 6.2mb).
Introduction to meeting_2 (PDF - 1.2mb).
Presentation by EWT (PDF - 6.5mb).
Presentation by AFRICAT (PDF - 4.3mb).
Presentation by Cheetah Conservation Botswana (PDF - 0.3mb).
Presentation by Cheetah Conservation Fund (PDF - 4.6mb).
Presentation by IUCN Reintroduction Specialist Group (PDF - 7.5mb).
Presentation by PAAZAB Chairman (PDF - 3.7mb).
Presentation by South African National Parks (PDF - 1.8mb).
Determining cheetah presence and interactions with humans in the south central area of Mozambique
(in collaboration)   (funded by)

This exciting project was undertaken through a partnership between the Range Wide Programme, RWP (Southern Africa office) and the National Directorate of Conservation Areas (DNAC) in Mozambique with funding provided by the Fossil Rim Wildlife Centre, USA.

The South Central area of Mozambique was identified as the key area for cheetah conservation in Mozambique at their national action planning workshop held in June 2010. Cheetah are known to still occur in this area, and two protected areas, Banhine and Zinave National Parks, historically had good populations of cheetah. This project will involve conducting a questionnaire survey in the area between the Limpopo National Park and Zinave National Park, including all areas in between, to determine cheetah presence and whether conflict with humans is reported. This crucial exploration project will then help DNAC and the RWP decide on the most effective conservation action.

The results of the project showed that cheetah are present in Limpopo National park as expected, but gave some unexpected results as well. Cheetah are still present in Banhine National Park despite our expectations which is very encouraging for cheetah conservation as a whole. The situation in Zinave National Park was unexpected in that people living in the area were confusing cheetah with serval. The survey concluded that cheetah are no longer present in this national park, but that if prey population increase we may see natural recolonisation and if not this park would be a candidate for reintroduction.

Abel Nhabanga and the Regional coordinator for Southern Africa presented the results of the survey at the Working Group meeting of the AHEAD/GLTFCA programme held from the 2 - 4th of March 2011.

Download copy of presentation (3.7mb).
Download copy of new locations for cheetah in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GL TFCA) - Coming soon


Technical meeting to discuss methodology and effectiveness of detection dogs to survey for cheetah and African wild dog presence/absence and abundance within the two regions, focussing initially on Southern Africa
(in collaboration)

As a result of communication with a number of cheetah and wild dog projects in the regions, the lead coordinator realized that many were considering using detection dogs to survey for cheetah and wild dog presence/absence and where possible estimate abundance. However, the use of such dogs has not yet been tested vigourously to determine whether it is a robust enough technique, and the training of such dogs is complicated and hence there is a need for an approved training schedule, preferably developed in collaboration with organizations with experience.

On the 23rd and 24th of November 2010, the range wide programme (Southern Africa office) organized and sponsored a workshop where 5 countries where represented (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia). Prior to the workshop all projects working with cheetah and wild dog in the region were contacted and given the opportunity to submit information and requirements for using detection dogs, and in total 8 projects took part in the process. The workshop focused on determining where surveys with detection dogs could take place and agreeing on a standardized approach to both field methodology and the training of dogs (including independent assessment of a dog's ability). The full report of the workshop will be available soon.


The conflict landscape for cheetah and African wild dog in Southern and East Africa: using spatial predictive modelling of distribution, status and levels of conflict to determine possible drivers of conflict and potential impacts of climate change
(funded by)  (funded by)

Conflict between large predators of Africa and the human communities they coexist with is one of the main threats to their survival. Wide ranging species such as cheetahs and wild dogs suffer particularly from the impacts of conflict with humans, as encounter rates are high giving their ranging behaviour.

The range wide conservation planning process has identified the critical importance of improving our understanding of what drives conflict between cheetahs and wild dogs and humans, in order to implement appropriate mitigation measures across the range within which they occur. Understanding the drivers of conflict will also help to predict how the conflict landscape will change with changes in climate, allowing for efficient scenario planning.

As the two species have been studied in detail in many different areas within their range, and conflict between them and human communities has also been documented widely, we propose to use this substantial amount of data already available, incorporating other biological and human data layers (examples include ecoregions, prey populations, human footprint, cultural areas and land use) to explore the drivers of conflict using a spatial analyst approach. The range wide planning process is collaborative, providing the opportunity to collate information from a wide variety of habitats, land uses and cultural areas.

This project has received funding from the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, in addition to funding from the Howard Buffet Foundation for the tuition fees for a doctoral student to carry out the work. The project will commence in Oct 2011 with the registration of Mr Alex Lobora, the student chosen by the Range Wide Programme given his experience in spatial analysis. Mr Lobora is a Tanzanian who currently works for the Tanzania Wildlife Institute. In the meantime, Dr Ogada and Dr Purchase will work to collate all information available within the two regions from collaborating partners.


Collaboration with FAO (Southern regional offices) to test the efficacy of the FAO Human-Wildlife Conflict Toolkit to assist field staff mitigate conflict between humans and cheetah and wild dog.
       

The FAOSFS Southern Africa regional office has provided support to a collaboration of locally based NGOs to develop a tool for field workers (referred to as extension workers) to use to work with local communities in areas with wildlife to mitigate conflict with a variety of wildlife species, including large carnivores. At a meeting in April, the regional coordinator for Southern Africa and the regional representative for FAOSFS, Dr Rene Czudek, realised the potential for a collaborative project where the FAOSFS would make toolkits available to cheetah and African wild dog conservation projects in the region, working in areas where humans are in direct conflict with these two carnivores. Such a project could assist such projects more effectively mitigate conflict, and assist the FAO in assessing the efficacy of their toolkits. The first stage of this collaboration involved a meeting between the representative of the Human Wildlife Conflict Toolkit project and six cheetah/wild dog projects from four countries in the region (Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), held in Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) on the 30th of July 2010. This meeting allowed for conservation projects to attend where the FAO sponsored project was not already working with national wildlife authorities to trial the HWC toolkits. The meeting was sponsored by the regional project, and the toolkits made available to relevant projects by the FAO regional office.

The meeting was very productive with positive feedback from the 6 projects attending, and much discussion regarding how the toolkits could be improved to assist with mitigation of conflict between humans and cheetah and wild dog. Much of this conflict takes place away from protected areas, such areas being the focus of the FAO sponsored project, so the process of reviewing the toolkits was very useful.

The 6 projects have been given HWC toolkits to trial in the areas where they are active, and it was agreed that the FAO project would also try and engage with the projects from Botswana and Mozambique that were not able to attend the meeting in July, to increase the type of communities and land use where the trials will take place. Each project receiving a toolkit will be expected to feedback to the NGOs developing the toolkit after a period of 6 - 12 months, under the auspices of the regional cheetah and wild dog programme

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