Located in central Tanzania, Kizigo and Muhesi are part of the Ruaha National Park-Rungwa-Kizigo-Muhesi Game Reserve ecosystem. This is the second largest wildlife area in Tanzania after the Selous Game Reserve. Most of Muhesi and Kizigo is covered with Miombo woodland, interspersed with open plains, rocky outcrops, scattered water holes, springs and riverine valleys. Muhesi and Kizigo together form one big area of about 3,300 square miles. Eland, roan, lion, leopard, Liechtenstein hartebeest, greater kudu and sable are plentiful.
Community Development
FCF projects around the Muhesi and Kizigo Game Reserves have focused on improving the general health of communities. FCF has supported the construction of dispensaries and health centers as well as the rehabilitation and installation of clean water sources in villages.
Area-specific Project: Borehole Drilling
Eighty percent of disease suffered by rural Tanzanians is caused by a lack of clean water. Women and children walk up to five hours a day to fetch heavy buckets of water. Crop yields suffer due to a lack of available water and family livelihoods hang in the balance.
Drilling a borehole near a village and equipping it with a simple hand pump will provide a year-round supply of clean water to a village. This will reduce disease and mortality, increase crop yields and ease the workload of Tanzanian women and children. FCF has a fully-equipped borehole drilling rig. The team and the rig are entirely mobile and can reach any point in Tanzania in less than a week. $3,500 will build a borehole for a rural village.
Anti-poaching
The Muhesi and Kizigo Game Reserves cover 2,112,000 acres in south-central Tanzania. A vast expanse of true wilderness, the Muhesi-Kizigo presents challenges physically and logistically to our anti-poaching teams. An area of extremes, the reserves are very dry during the dry season but after the onset of the rains prove extremely difficult to negotiate by vehicle. As a result our three rapid action teams and one village game scout team, along with Government Game Scouts, cover the areas on foot much of the time. Hardwood timber poaching is a huge problem in the Reserves. Ivory poaching and bush meat poaching are also major concerns, while domestic livestock are often removed from reserve boundaries in areas close to villages.
Area-specific Project: Uniforms
When sent to the bush each ranger is equipped with 2 shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, coveralls, 2 t-shirts, 1 backpack, 1 pair of boots, 2 pairs of socks and a hat. $150 will pay for the purchase of one complete uniform for one ranger.
Research
Together with the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), FCF conducted a wet and dry season sample count of ungulates in these Game Reserves over 2006/2007. This data has been compared to previous data and FCF intends to continue monitoring in 2009/2010, or every three years. In this way FCF would be able to analyze population trends in the future to assist the management of these areas in terms of hunting off-take and anti-poaching needs. Kizigo and Muhesi Game Reserves (as part of the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem) also contain a seemingly healthy wild dog population, an important population for this threatened species. FCF assists the Tanzania Mammal Atlas Project with sightings and photographs of wild dogs.
Area-specific Project: Sponsor Flying Hours or a Whole Survey
The costs for an ungulate sample count in Muhesi and Kizigo Game Reserves can be assisted by purchasing one or more flying hours at $250/hour.
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