Sunday July 25: VILLAGE STAY: HEALTH AND CONSERVATION AT THE HUMAN-WILDLIFE-LIVESTOCK INTERFACE

7:15 am: Breakfast

8:00-9:00 am: Discussion & Feedback: Pastoralism and Conservation. Can they Co-exist?

Leader: David Mutekanga, WCS Ruaha Landscape Program (WCS RLP)

We had time to discuss questions that arose from the household visit and additional aspects of challenges faced by pastoralists. Specifically, tensions between pastoralism and conservation were discussed.

9:15-9:45 am: Overview of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Ruaha Landscape Program

Presenter: David Mutekanga, WCS RLP

Mutekanga introduced participants to the wide range of conservation activities conducted by the Ruaha Landscape Program. He talked about their approach to building local capacity for conservation. He highlighted some of the programs success and challenges.

9:45 am: Tea

10:00-11:00 am: Case Discussion: The Unintended Consequences of Development Assistance: the case of Usangu irrigation schemes

Presenter(s): Mzee Bakari Mbano, Director, WCS Ruaha Landscape Program

In the Usangu region of Tanzania, smallholder rice schemes established with development assistance in the 1980s and early 1990s precipitated a cascade of unintended and undesirable outcomes, many of which are still being realized. The primary and direct effect was that legal channelization of water facilitated a proliferation of illegal diversions and satellite farms surrounding the rice schemes. The resultant loss of water to the Great Ruaha River was and remains the central driver of the environmental and socioeconomic cascade of unintended effects most notably: a 77% reduction in the area of the Ihefu swamp; over 60% loss of dry season habitat in Ruaha National Park; the collapse of fisheries in Mtera Reservoir; increased potential for transmission of disease among livestock, wildlife and people (both waterborne & other); and the loss of hydroelectric power produced by the Mtera hydroelectric plant.

11:15 am-12:30 pm: Practical Exercise - Using a One Health Approach to Investigate Disease and Water Scarcity in Ruaha: the HALI Project

Presenter: Deana Clifford, UC Davis Wildlife Health Center

We were presented with the ecosystem health issues that led to the formation of the Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement Project, a collaborative and stakeholder-driven research and capacity building project led by the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, Sokoine University of Agriculture, WCS Ruaha Landscape Program, and the University of Vermont. We then boke into groups to generate interdisciplinary approaches that could be used to investigate the health and economic impacts of zoonotic (bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis) and waterborne diseases in wildlife, livestock and people. After the discussion Clifford shared the approach that was utilized, lessons learned, and key research findings that resulted from this project. She then explained the future direction of the work.

12:30-12:50 pm: Orientation to Field Exercises

Deana Clifford & Bakari Mbano

1:00 pm: Lunch

2:00-6:00 pm: Exercise 2: East African plant communities

Leaders : Mzee Mhoro (Retired Herbarium Technician, University of Dar es Salaam), Mzee Moses (Village Chairman, Idodi) and Mzee Bakari Mbano (WCS RLP)

We learned about the unique plant communities in East Africa, including plants of conservation value and of importance to wildlife. Special attention was also given to medicinal plants utilized by people and human impacts on plant communities. Our presenter along the way was somewhat boring so some of the girls in the group spent much of the time making beautiful art. Along the way we also found some giraffe pee to smell (not bad)!

7:00 pm: Dinner/campfire

Evening: I sat around the campfire and Gill gave me a massage!