Arusha — On our way back to Arusha my friend and I, a few weeks ago, had a wonderful tour in Mkomazi National Park recently where we found the reserve to be a silent gem tucked away near the bustling regions of Kilimanjaro and Tanga. The Pare Mountains and Umba River are viewed from the south-east of the reserve with Mount Kilimanjaro on the north-west all offering stunning and amazing views. Clear and impressive sightings of Usambara Mountains and mountains surrounding Mkomazi Game Reserve dominate the horizon overlooking the newly crowned city of Tanga.

Two decades ago Mkomazi Game Reserve did not feature a lot in the line-up of the much-talked-about Tanzania tourist attractions therefore it remained unknown to many people. However, few years ago it has received worldwide recognition for its efforts to create tourism-based, sustainable, integrated conservation through government-public-private partnerships.

For many visitors, Mkomazi's fascinating feature is its teeming wildlife including spectacular sightings of dry bush, old baobab trees, isolated rocky hills, open savannah, acacias and shallow valleys of grassland. It shares a border with Kenya's Tsavo National Park with the southernmost extension of the Tsavo ecosystem in north-east Tanzania allowing large herds of elephant, oryx and zebra to migrate during the wet season.

The reserve boasts of nearly 80 kinds of mammals and over 400 bird species. During the rainy season, close to 1,000 elephants wander freely with their calves. Bee-eaters, hornbills, guinea fowl, starlings and weaver-birds are seen in large numbers in the reserve. Being a wet season sanctuary for the elephant, Mkomazi holds sizeable population of lesser kudu, gerenuk, oryx, eland, giraffe, buffalo, lion, leopard, hyena, cheetah, Grant's gazelle, hartebeest, impala, water-buck and zebra.

Mkomazi was established in 1951 then remote and inaccessible, and in the late 1960's their black rhino population reduced by poachers from 10,000 to about 300 only. Twenty-eight years later Mkomazi was in steep decline, heavy poaching had almost wiped out its once populated black rhino and elephant herds. Then, with the view to ensuring complete rehabilitation of the area and the reintroduction of its endangered species, the government appointed Mkomazi a national priority project.

In 1997 a total of 25,000 acres were set aside for the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary, the first in Tanzania, and later received its first rhinos from South Africa. With the help of Tony Fitzjohn, Field Director of the George Adamson African Wildlife Preservation Trust - the black rhino has returned to Mkomazi roaming the wild freely, unthreatened and free from poachers. The sanctuary has grown boosting the populating rhinos to 60.

After visiting the Mkomazi reserve I am convinced that the conservancy has achieved a dramatic turn-around as the management efficiency has become a model for similar projects in the future. On a similar visit a few years ago I noticed the worsened roads and general infrastructure in and around the reserve.

However, this time around there is a marked improvement in the roads and the eagerness of the rangers to do their job. The years of hard work have had a great effect on the animals in the reserve. It must be a first for such renowned wildlife reserve to be run (although partly) by people outside government wildlife services.

Naturally, Mkomazi a Park in the TANAPA family offers yet another challenge to the tourism stakeholders, government, investors to invest tourist-friendly services, which will attract many tourists to visit the Park.