Tanzania’s Tarangire-Manyara Wildlife Corridor is one of the few remaining wildlife corridors in Eastern Africa, allowing for the free movement of large animals such as giraffe, elephants, zebras and buffalo between the Tarangire and Ngorongoro National Parks to the North, which is crucial for their survival. The corridor is also a crucial giraffe nursery.
Yet the long-term sustainability of wildlife that rely on this corridor is not possible without assuring the wellbeing of communities living within it, including 12 villages in and around Manyara Ranch in this corridor. Today most of the community members in live in extreme poverty, threatening their own survival and the delicate balance between people and wildlife.
Families living around Manyara Ranch within this corridor often face an impossible choice: feed their children today, or protect the wildlife and land that will sustain them tomorrow. When crops fail and pastures dry, desperation drives parents into wildlife corridors—clearing land, grazing cattle, or hunting bushmeat—sacrificing long-term survival for short-term relief. The cost is devastating: dwindling wildlife, persistent poverty, and the erosion of one of Africa’s most vital ecosystems.
But a new path is opening. For 25 years, Africa Bridge has shown that rural communities can rise from extreme poverty without sacrificing their natural heritage. Now, in partnership with the community-led Manyara Ranch Management Trust, we are bringing this proven model to the Tarangire-Manyara Wildlife Corridor—22,000 square kilometers of grassland that sustains both iconic species and local livelihoods. With the ranch transferred to community stewardship in 2024, families now hold the keys to a shared future where prosperity and wildlife conservation go hand in hand.
Over the next five years, this partnership will demonstrate that thriving communities and thriving wildlife are not opposing goals, but inseparable ones. Together, we can replace the cycle of poverty and loss with a cycle of hope, resilience, and lasting abundance.