The Greater Gombe and Mahale Ecosystem is more than 20,000 km2 area in western Tanzania. It has been estimated that over 90% of Tanzania’s chimpanzee population is found within this ecosystem. The major threats to chimpanzees are: conversion of habitats into food crops and agricultural land, deliberate killing by humans including snares, disease due to pathogens introduced by humans, incompatible charcoal production, incompatible development and expansion of settlements, incompatible extraction of firewood and logging for timber and human-ignited fires. In order to address these threats, the Jane Goodall Institute and partners have been engaged in facilitating the establishment of community-based organizations, developing bylaws and building local capacity to develop and implement village land-use plans and manage newly established Village Forest Reserves. Areas in western Tanzania are also one of the driest, most open habitats in which chimpanzees occur and the chimpanzees of this region live at extremely low densities and exhibit extremely large home ranges. This presentation will discuss: a) lessons learned from applying UAVs to improve detection of chimpanzee nests in order to improve survey estimates; and b) the potential of using UAVs with the local communities to monitor implementation of their village land use plans and protect and restore Village Forest Reserves.
