Wildlife Research for Conservation
Western Wildlife Research Centre is located in western Tanzania along Lake Tanganyika shore in Bangwe area within Kigoma-Ujiji Municipal. Wildlife research activities in western Tanzania particularly Mahale mountains started in 1965 by a Japanese researcher namely Nishida. This researcher was under supervision of Professor Itani from Kyoto University, Japan. This centre was established by Wildlife Division in 1975 as Kasoge Chimpanzee Research Station with the aim of conserving Chimpanzee in Kasoge forest and Mahale Mountain. However, the station was handed over to Serengeti Wildlife Research Institute in 1980 as one of the five research centres, with the name Mahale Mountains Wildlife Research Centre. In 2023, the centre was renamed as Western Wildlife Research Centre by GN 260.
The major responsibilities of the centre includes conducting wildlife research in western Tanzania, understanding chimpanzees’ habitat, behaviour and conservation challenges, promoting chimpanzees as tourists’ attraction, and overseing wildlife research conducted in western Tanzania
The centre has the following ongoing projects
1 Evaluation of Feed Resources Abundance and Diversity for Grazing Animals in Communities Surrounding the Ugalla Ecosystem
2. Balancing conservation goals and human livelihood needs: beekeeping as an incentive for conservation of chimpanzee habitat in the Masito-Ugalla Ecosystem
3. Water Bird Monitoring,
4. Impacts of anthropogenic activities on the conservation of Mahale-Luafi-Katavi wildlife corridors
5. Human-Elephant Conflict in Western Tanzania
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