With public and private sector investment, the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) aims to triple agricultural output in the region over a 20-year period begging questions like: how can that growth be accommodated without degrading key conservation habitat and ecosystem service delivery areas? Where should investment be directed to meet the interests of regional development, private sector, and conservation stakeholders with divergent agendas? What land use strategies will improve local livelihoods while maintaining a natural resource base that mitigates water scarcity and climate change impacts and sustains wildlife populations?

The African Wildlife Foundation and Wildlife Conservation Society held a workshop in Mbeya, Tanzania on April 3 & 4 to apply a conservation planning framework that will addresses such questions with appropriate sustainable land-use strategies. Based on spatial scenario analysis, the framework recognizes that the pace of land use change in the Tanzania is accelerating as shaped by suite of drivers including population growth, changing resource utilization patterns, infrastructure development and increasingly climate change.