Michael is the Co-founder and Managing director of the Tanzania Research and Conservation Organization (TRCO). Also, Michael is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and his study focuses on the “management of human-wildlife conflict along hard boundaries of African protected areas through fencing”, and the case study is in the western Serengeti.
He completed MSc in Ecology and Evolution, with a specialization in Ecology and Conservation at the University of Groningen. While doing his master’s, he assessed the interaction of wildlife, natural vegetation, and livestock in the eastern Serengeti ecosystem. He also assessed the ecological impacts of electric fencing on wildlife habitat utilization in the western Serengeti in collaboration with the Grumeti Fund and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI). Before his MSc, he completed a Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice at the University of Oxford, and a BSc in Wildlife Science and Conservation at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Michael was involved in the assessment of large carnivores’ ecology and developing mitigation strategies for human-carnivore conflict, up to 2018 in the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem through Ruaha Carnivore Project.
Michael assessed the impacts of pastoralist resettlement on lion conservation in Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape, in collaboration with Courtney Hughes from the University of Alberta, Canada. In addition, Michael has collaborated with Tanzanian park ecologists to determine the density of lions in the Ruaha National Park. Further, Michael collaborated with Tanzania National Parks on the assessment of wildlife distribution in the new three established national parks in western Tanzania, the Burigi-Chato, Ibanda-Kyerwa, and Rumanyika-Karagwe. Currently, Michael plays an important role to facilitate the research and conservation of pangolins in Tanzania.
