Background:
African vultures have declined by up to 90% in the past 30 years, with most species Critically Endangered. Since 2013, North Carolina Zoo (NC Zoo) has been committed to vulture conservation in southern Tanzania, and more recently northern Tanzania.
Working in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the first systematic assessments and long-term monitoring were undertaken to understand the population status and identify key threats for endangered vulture species. Initially working in the Ruaha-Katavi landscape, we expanded our work to the greater Selous ecosystem in 2018. In expanding our work we have formed important partnerships with NGOs such as Lion Landscapes, Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Grumeti Fund, whilst also working closely with the wildlife authorities in each protected area.
Whilst Tanzania is a stronghold for vultures, we have recorded worrying population declines, corroborated by high annual mortality amongst tagged vultures. This led to joint efforts by NC Zoo and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) to develop the first national action plan for vultures at the end of 2023, which sets a framework for scaled-up and coordinated efforts amongst all stakeholders to reduce the declines of these iconic birds.
As scavengers, vultures play a vital role in ecosystem services (waste and disease removal, climate change mitigation), and their wide-ranging behaviour means they function as landscape level indicators of ecosystem health, alerting us to disease outbreaks, poisoning events and other illegal activities. These threats often impact other endangered species such as lions and elephants. The greatest threat to vultures in Tanzania is poisoning, both intentionally, such as trade in vulture body parts and unintentionally, linked to predator control. In addressing vulture conservation concerns, which will directly benefit other threatened species e.g. carnivores, we primarily need to reduce poisoning incidents. To this end, we have expanded our project to include community work within the central part of the Ruaha-Katavi landscape, an area with poisoning activity but without conservation interventions. After baseline surveys were completed this year, NC Zoo has developed a community training which is being trialed.
Position overview:
We are looking for a Project Manager to help coordinate the community work, and organize and implement the long-term vulture monitoring activities. The position will be based out of Iringa, although travel to field sites will be expected. The Project Manager will be responsible for the daily running of the vulture project work in Tanzania, as well as communication between different partners and other stakeholders, report writing, accounting, logistics and problem solving.
For information about the key management roles and responsibilities, and how to apply visit the attachement below.