The COVID-19 pandemic presents a potential threat to wildlife resources in Africa. In this review, using Tanzania as a case, we examine the impacts and risks that wildlife sectors in Africa are facing or are likely to face as a result of this pandemic. We recognize loss of revenues from tourism as a major impact that could negatively influence the management of wildlife species and habitats. Loss of tourism revenues reduces capacity of the conservation agencies to fund conservation operations and support the benefit sharing schemes. Furthermore, it undermines the efficacy of conservation to compete with alternative economic activities which are ecologically damaging. Increased unemployment and household poverty due to closure of businesses may exacerbate wildlife crime and unsustainable activities. Additionally, contributions from donor-funding organizations and development partners cannot be guaranteed as revenues may be diverted to support other sectors including health. In order to address and minimize the impacts and reduce the risks to the wildlife sector, the following policy measures are recommended: ensure adequate budget for conservation; develop a crisis management plan; reconsider protocols for conducting wildlife trade; develop a comprehensive tourism recovery plan; promote scientific studies focusing on zoonoses and adopt a One-Health Approach as a matter of urgency in dealing with COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Habitat degradation caused by woody plant encroachment has been a common phenomenon in savanna ecosystems. An increasing woody plant cover in open grassland reduces grazing grounds and, consecutively, impacts mammalian herbivores, but structural changes and their associated impact have rarely been assessed and quantified. We analyzed the extent of woody plant encroachment via remote sensing and used transects and plots to assess encroaching woody plant species and their associated impacts on herbaceous plant and herbivore species in Maswa Game Reserve, Tanzania. We found that woody plant cover had increased by 0.5% to 2.6% per annum over the last thirty years, while in other parts of the park it has decreased by 0.5% to 1.5% per annum. Acacia drepanolobium was the dominant encroaching woody species, and the number of stems in heavily encroached sites was seven times and three times higher than in open grassland and at medium encroached sites, respectively. In encroached plots, grazer and mixed feeder species occurrence were reduced while the presence of browser species was slightly elevated. Furthermore, our finding shows that bare ground cover is positively correlated with an increase of woody plant cover. Additionally, the number of herbaceous species slightly increased with the increase of woody plant encroachment, while the herbaceous cover was negatively correlated with the increase of woody plant cover. We suggest that fire regimes should be taken up to suppress the ongoing encroachment processes while strongly encroached sites might need mechanical intervention to control dense vegetation. This emphasis is on fire, particularly prescribed fire as a management tool of vegetation in Savanna ecosystem. We conclude that, woody plant encroachment is driven by different factors such as fire, mega-herbivores and topology that may interactively trigger woody plant encroachment in Savanna ecosystem.

Worldwide, open grass areas of savannah ecosystems are being transformed into shrubland. This woody plant encroachment is likely a result of factors such as rainfall, fire and secondary dispersal by ungulate herbivory. However, few experiments have been conducted to disentangle and quantify the role of these factors for seed germination in savannahs. We assessed in situ germination success of Vachellia drepanolobium seeds under simulated rainfall variability patterns, fire treatments and dung experiments in Maswa Game Reserve, Tanzania. Fire reduced seed germination by more than 13%, whereas germination in buffalo and elephant dung increased by 1% and 3% respectively.Additionally, intermediate simulated rainfall was more beneficial for seedling emergence success than large, infrequent simulated rainfall amounts, while shoot growth was twice as high under frequent and intermediate simulated rainfall treatments than under large infrequent simulated rainfall. Our results provide insights that bush fires, drought stress, and large rainfall events can suppress V. drepanolobium seedling emergence and growth.Hence, bush encroachment may be linked to management practices such as fire regimes and climatic conditions, i.e., frequent low rainfall conditions. Our results can help predict future patterns of encroachment under varying rainfall and fire events.

Habitat degradation, caused in particular by woody plant encroachment, has been a common phenomenon in savanna ecosystems. With increasing woody plant cover in open savanna grassland, structural changes and their associated impact need to be assessed and quantified. We analyzed the extent of woody plant encroachment via remote sensing and assessed encroached sites and open grassland of Maswa Game Reserve on the ground to identify and examine encroaching woody plant species and their associated impacts on herbaceous plant and herbivore species. We found that woody plant cover increased by 0.5% to 2.6% per annum. Acacia drepanolobium dominated the woody encroaching species, and the number of stems in heavily encroached sites was seven times and three times higher than in open grassland and at medium encroached sites, respectively. Our results show that woody plant encroachment reduces grazers and mixed feeder species occurrence. Furthermore, the number of herbaceous species slightly increased with increase of woody plant encroachment, while herbaceous cover was negatively correlated with increase of woody plant cover. Fire significantly reduced germination success of A. drepanolobium. Intermediate simulated rainfall was more beneficial to seedling emergence success than infrequent simulated rainfall, while seedling shoots growth was significantly higher in frequent and intermediate simulated rainfall treatments than under infrequent simulated rainfall. Hence, our study suggests that the recent bush encroachment phenomena might have been stipulated by suppression of bush fires and frequent low rainfall. This understanding will contribute in management of vegetation specifically woody plants in savanna ecosystems that are important wildlife habitats.