Mkomazi ecological research programme 1993-1996

In 1989 the Royal Geographical Society was asked to mount an ecological inventory study of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, by the Wildlife Department of the Tanzanian Government. This request came as a result of the very successful outcome of the Society's Kora Research Project in eastern Kenya, between 1982 and 1985 (Coe 1985, Coe and Collins 1986). This Project undertook a programme of describing the flora and fauna of the Kora National Reserve, with a view to providing the information that would be necessary for the Kenya Government to plan the future utilisation and management of this little disturbed area of Acacia-Commiphora bushland. The response of the RGS to this invitation was to ask Dr Malcolm Coe, who led the Kora Research Project to plan a new venture in collaboration with the Tanzanian Government in 1990, with a view to mounting a joint Mkomazi Ecological Research Programme (MERP), which would provide research and training opportunities for UK-based scientists and their Tanzanian counterparts. For this collaborative programme we identified the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Department of Zoology) and the African College of Wildlife Management, Mweka, as suitable bodies to provide the young Tanzanian scientists to collaborate in our work.