John Salehe helped shape Tanzania’s community conservation movement

John Gospel Yonazi Salehe died June 19th at 71, after a four-decade career spanning Tanzania's government, FAO, UNDP, WWF, and the African Wildlife Foundation, where he served as Tanzania country director. His work in the Maasai Steppe focused on protecting wildlife corridors between Lake Manyara and Tarangire while supporting community-run Wildlife Management Areas, predator-proof livestock enclosures, and compensation schemes for herders.

He applied similar thinking to forestry in central Tanzania, arguing that restrictions on charcoal production and farming needed to be paired with viable livelihoods, though researchers later challenged some success claims from a REDD project in Kondoa he was involved with. Colleagues recalled his patience with the administrative grind of conservation — negotiations, land-use plans, budgets — and his long service chairing groups including the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group and Community Wildlife Management Area Consortium.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.