Serengeti Development, Research and Environmental Conservation Centre (SEDEREC, Tanzanian local NGO)

The Partner of Living with Elephants Project

SEDEREC is a Non-governmental Organization registered on 7th November 2005 in Serengeti district, Mara region, Tanzania. SEDEREC facilitates community-based natural resource management, with a focus on promoting the coexistence of people and wild elephants in areas impacted by human-elephant conflict (HEC). Our work involves everything from preventing and mitigating crop damage and human and livestock injury by elephants to combatting the elephant poaching problem at the community level, with a focus on bolstering environmentally sustainable local livelihoods that provide viable alternatives to participating in the illegal wildlife trade. We work in 30 area villages, collectively impacting a population of 90,000 people.

Damian Thobias Magori outside of a wire fence used to deter elephants from block farms in Robanda village, 2017.

Since its inception, SEDEREC and our partners have worked with village residents on several methods of human-elephant conflict prevention and mitigation, including:

• providing 2 vehicles to Robanda village, which are used to chase elephants from farms and homesteads;
• providing training and equipment to village elephant patrol groups in 10 villages bordering protected areas where residents patrol for elephants themselves. Equipment includes 200 uniforms, 185 torches (flash lights), 161 rain coats, 161 pairs of gum boots, and 252 locally made baruti machines (fire crackers);
• supplying 1 solar panel set to Misseke village, which is used for charging torches;
• working with village residents to install and maintain a total of 360 beehives;
• installing 42 kilometers of wire fence in strategic locations in 12 villages along the buffer zone to help deter elephants from village land
• supporting construction of 3 village game posts at Misseke village which are used to patrol for elephants.

Damian Thobias Magori is the Founder and Executive Director of SEDEREC. He was born in Serengeti District and is devoted to the coexistence of African elephants and local communities.

SEDEREC has worked with or received support from a variety of partners and donors over the years, including: Waseda University, Japan; Afric-Africa; World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS); the Grumeti Fund; SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency); the Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT); the Tanzania Coalition on Debt and Development (TCDD); the Foundation for Civil Society; and various levels of government.