Manyara Ranch: A Corridor - and More

When the Government of Tanzania turned over the Manyara Ranch in April 2001 to a private land trust that AWF and its many collaborators in Tanzania helped establish, the transfer made conservation history.

The first land trust of its kind in east Africa, the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust (TLCT) is a nonprofit institution that seeks to acquire critical wildlife areas. These lands are then managed to protect the needs of local pastoral communities and to preserve the integrity of the landscape for wildlife conservation.

Manyara Ranch is held jointly with local communities under the trust. Previously owned by the Tanzanian Government, Manyara Ranch occupies a critical location between Tarangire and Lake Manyara Maasai Steppe Heartland, one of the world's richest refuges for wildlife and an area renowned for its biodiversity.

Tarangire, with its characteristic baobab trees and numerous elephants, and Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its tree-climbing lions, are linked by the Kwa Kuchinja wildlife corridor, which passes through Manyara Ranch. Now, the animals can continue to freely travel the corridor between the two parks.

What's Next?

Recently, the Brown Foundation, Inc. generously agreed to support AWF's plans to move to the next level of management, taking steps to secure the ranch and to ensure that it fulfills its threefold mission: to serve as a wildlife corridor, to continue as a self-sustaining, operating ranch and to provide a center for education and social services for the surrounding Maasai communities.

Thanks to the Brown Foundation's support, AWF's immediate priorities include:

consolidating the new private management structure for the ranch,

improving wildlife and habitat conservation,

modernizing livestock management functions,

relocating (within the ranch) and improving the Manyara Ranch Primary School, and

encouraging private investment in tourism within Manyara Ranch.

The Brown Foundation's support complements existing support from USAID.

Manyara Students Make the Grade

When AWF Trustee Paul Schosberg and his wife, Jane, visited Manyara Ranch in 2001, they immediately grasped "the value of the ranch as a connecting link in this formidable chain of parks and wildlife corridors." But what really commanded their attention was "the role of the Manyara Ranch Primary School in the community and the commitment of the community leaders to the school and its students."

The school, located in the center of the ranch, is by all accounts shabby and inadequate. And yet, says Schosberg, "in conditions that more closely resembled some of the most disadvantaged school systems in the United States, teachers were teaching and children were learning. Their pride in their school and what it represents was palpable, and the framed certificates of academic excellence gave eloquent testimony to what was going on there."

Touring the co-educational boarding school, the Schosbergs found the girls' dormitory quarters particularly deplorable. In one room, 18 mattresses lined the floor, each mattress shared by three or four girls.

After speaking with community leaders and AWF staff, the Schosbergs decided that they would make a start in improving conditions at the school by funding construction of a new and more spacious girls' dormitory.

Today, enrollment at the Manyara School is more than 600 children, with a teaching staff of 15. Although the school's buildings continue to deteriorate, lack electricity, potable water and adequate facilities The students excel academically and have won several district-level prizes, according to Manyara Ranch Manager Clive Jones.

AWF has proposed relocating the school to a safer and more accessible location within the ranch, with better educational opportunities for the surrounding community and special emphasis on the often neglected academic needs of girls. The present school stands in a wildlife corridor where large numbers of wildlife move; Jones reports that a rogue lioness has been terrorizing cattle on the ranch in recent weeks, and he fears the students' safety could be jeopardized.

The local school board and a community steering committee have approved the new site, and a pro bono architect has drawn up plans. Jones is exploring a partnership between AWF and a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) that can take on the school-development aspects of the project.

Now, with funding from the Brown Foundation, Inc., AWF can start the relocation process. Funding for the full project is expected from a variety of sources, including USAID, TANAPA and the Lutheran Church. At least another $750,000 will be needed, however, to complete the school relocation project.

The Manyara Ranch School offers perhaps the only opportunity for children of the indigenous Maasai pastoralist communities in this landscape to receive a good basic education. As Jones points out, "we need to focus on educational issues for all the communities surrounding the ranch -- this will also ensure that there will be trained and aware people to manage this important landscape and its wildlife in the future."