Africa’s vulture safe zones show promise but face major challenges across vast landscapes

Africa’s vultures are in crisis, but a growing network of “safe zones” offers hope for these critically important scavengers. These slow-breeding birds play a vital ecological role by cleaning up carcasses, yet they face mounting threats from poisoning, power lines, and habitat loss across their enormous territories.

South Africa’s Tswalu Kalahari Reserve has become a model for vulture protection since establishing the continent’s oldest safe zone in 2019. The 282,000-acre reserve in the Kalahari Desert has implemented targeted measures to protect endangered white-backed and lappet-faced vultures, including covering water reservoirs with nets to prevent drowning and banning lead ammunition. “Tswalu was a massive success,” says Linda van der Heever from BirdLife South Africa. “It really is, in many senses, a textbook vulture safe zone.”

The reserve, owned by the wealthy Oppenheimer family, aims to create a 296,000-acre sanctuary for multiple threatened vulture species, including the critically endangered white-backed vulture. Ecologist Wendy Panaino notes the ultimate goal is establishing a comprehensive safe haven for these vulnerable birds.

However, scaling up these successes across Africa’s vast landscapes presents significant challenges. Vultures range over enormous territories that cross multiple countries and jurisdictions, making coordinated protection efforts extremely difficult. While several similar safe zone projects have launched across Africa in recent years, conservationists acknowledge that protecting these far-ranging scavengers will require innovative approaches and unprecedented regional cooperation to ensure their survival.