The Tanzania Office of Peaceland Foundation donated emergency relief supplies, including drones, blankets, wool caps, food and water, to Kilimanjaro National Park last Friday, with the assistance of its local partner, SUKOS KOVA Foundation.
The donation was made following a large-scale wildfire in the park last month, which started near a mountaineering camp at an altitude of 4,000 meters, and has continued to burn for nearly two weeks.
Local authorities sent 600 firefighters, and mobilized nearby police and residents to control the fire, but still couldn’t stop it from destroying 33 square kilometers on what is Africa’s tallest mountain.
Due to climate change, the region is getting drier and drier, causing more and more wildfires. The mountain’s glacier has also shrunk by 80 percent in the past 80 years, losing its ability to regulate the local environment by itself.
The drones donated will be used for disaster management and environmental monitoring, so as to detect hidden fire hazards in a more timely manner in the future.
Local environmental protection efforts such as anti-poaching patrols will also become more efficient thanks to the new equipment.
Nurdin Babu, Kilimanjaro District Governor, and other local officials, as well as representatives of Peaceland Foundation and SUKOS KOVA Foundation, attended the donation ceremony.
Suleiman Kova, chairman of the SUKOS KOVA Foundation, pointed out the importance of preventing wildfire disasters, which have had a severe impact on local tourism.
Huang Haoyu, project director of the Tanzania Office of Peaceland Foundation, said that after the equipment assistance, they plan to form a series of comprehensive partnerships with local emergency and disaster relief teams, assisting with training for rescue team members in the future.
