Panthera Tanzania: An Exciting New Frontier for Wild Cat Conservation

Introducing Panthera Tanzania! We’re excited to announce we established an official regional entity and office in Tanzania in 2025, expanding our conservation work in East Africa to protect wild cats and their habitats across western Tanzania’s vast wilderness. Through partnerships with the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) and local communities, Panthera is leading research, protection and community-based conservation initiatives to secure these critical ecosystems for both wildlife and people.

Western Tanzania is one of Africa’s largest remaining wilderness areas, comprising over 100,000 square kilometers of interconnected protected areas (PAs). These areas harbor globally important populations of lions, leopards, small cats, African wild dogs and spotted hyaenas, as well as elephants, a range of antelope species, and rare and cryptic species such as the sitatunga and the shoebill stork. Nevertheless, the landscape is under increasing threat from rising levels of habitat conversion and degradation. The area is also lacking in conservation investments, especially relative to other PA complexes in Africa. 

Panthera experts knew this area was likely important for wild cats, increasingly threatened, and under resourced, making it a potential priority for conservation support. But western Tanzania is also very remote, and very little information existed about its wildlife, threats and management support needs.

These areas have been almost completely unstudied – until now. 

To gain some of the first insights into these potentially important populations, in 2024 Panthera supported a research effort to carry out the first-ever survey of large carnivores, their prey, and human impacts across the landscape. The goal was to help fill these knowledge gaps and determine whether Panthera support could assist in the conservation of these areas.  

Between June and October 2024, Panthera researchers, in collaboration with the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) and the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), carried out over 1,500 kilometers of sign-based surveys over the five highest-priority PAs in the landscape, together covering approximately 30,000-square-kilometers of remote wilderness. These data were used to map distribution and understand habitat use not only of large carnivores, but also of their prey and of human impacts, so as to identify the most important and highest priority conservation areas in the landscape. 
 
This exploratory effort identified suppressed yet recoverable wild cat populations, as well as evidence of increasing threats. As a result of this, we began discussions with TAWA and other conservation stakeholders to understand where opportunities for partnerships may lie and develop a blueprint for a potential collaboration.  

In December 2024, Panthera was officially invited by TAWA to investigate the potential for a management support relationship in Luganzo-Tongwe and Ugalla Game Reserves (GRs). Over the course of the next few months, Panthera and TAWA worked together to define the details of this partnership, and in July 2025 an agreement for management support for Ugalla and Luganzo-Tongwe GRs was officially signed by both parties. 

Panthera’s support to TAWA will start primarily through protection and wildlife monitoring support, with the idea of adapting this over time as needs and priorities in the landscape evolve.  

Panthera is aiming for its support in western Tanzania to be truly community-centric; Luganzo-Tongwe and Ugalla are almost unique in Tanzania in being strictly protected areas that also allow for controlled extraction of natural resources by local communities, including fishing and honey gathering. Thus, securing the natural biodiversity in this area will not only benefit wildlife, but also the human communities that have shared these habitats with them for generations. To further support these communities, Panthera is also employing a community centric approach to protection, supporting the establishment of joint TAWA-community antipoaching patrols, thus employing an inclusive approach to protection and bringing tangible benefits to communities through the employment of members to protect their natural heritage.

Panthera’s entrance in western Tanzania is an exciting new venture for our conservation efforts. And things are moving rapidly.  

Since starting the program, Panthera researchers have: 

• Deployed over 300 camera traps to establish baselines for wildlife populations. 
• Provided training in SMART patrolling for TAWA rangers and commenced support for joint TAWA-community antipoaching patrols. 
• Invested in the training of 20 new community game scouts, to build the foundations for the long-term securing of the landscape. 

Stay tuned for additional updates as this exciting new project gets underway – you can follow Tanzania-related content on Facebook and Instagram (@PantheraTanzania), in addition to our usual social media channels.