Tanzania’s smallest game reserve, on the edge of a city
Pande is a remnant of Eastern African coastal forest on a low ridge of clay-bound sands and gravel north-west of Dar es Salaam, about 16 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean, in Kinondoni and Ubungo districts. The ridge is a continuation of the Pugu Hills to the south-south-west. It is a game reserve rather than a national park, so it falls to the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) and not to TANAPA — and TANAPA’s General Brochure, edition 2024/2 of October 2024, does not mention Pande anywhere in its eighteen thousand words.
The reserve was gazetted as a Forest Reserve in 1952 and re-gazetted as a Game Reserve under Government Notice No. 461 in 1990, which moved it from the forestry authorities to the wildlife ones. TAWA calls it “the smallest Game Reserve in Tanzania” and names five surrounding villages: Msumi, Msakuzi, Mabwe Pande, Mpiji Magoe and Mbopo.
Two basic numbers are not agreed between sources. TAWA gives the area as 15.39 square kilometres and the position as approximately 45 kilometres north-west of the city centre. The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group’s biodiversity survey gives 1,226 hectares and approximately 25 kilometres north-west of the centre; the Key Biodiversity Areas factsheet gives 12.44 square kilometres while repeating the 1,226 hectare figure. No source consulted gives a driving time, and the disagreement is worth knowing before anyone plans around a distance.
What is actually known about it
Almost everything published in detail about Pande’s wildlife comes from one document: Pande Game Reserve: A Biodiversity Survey, Tanzania Forest Conservation Group Technical Paper No. 7, edited by Nike Doggart, with fieldwork carried out between 3 and 17 February 2003 in collaboration with the Wildlife Division. It records 448 species — 164 plants, 38 mammals, 142 birds, 25 reptiles, 23 amphibians and 56 butterflies — of which 60 are coastal forest endemics and 19 near-endemics.
The headline animal is the Rondo galago, Galagoides rondoensis, now usually placed in Paragalago: a tiny nocturnal primate the survey lists as Endangered. Seven were trapped. The report calls it “possibly the rarest of all the galago species”, states that “the discovery of this species alone in Pande GR makes Pande GR a very important area for conservation”, and estimates 180 to 260 individuals in the reserve. Four galago species in all were recorded, which the survey describes as “quite remarkable given the small and denuded nature of the habitat”. The black-and-rufous elephant shrew, also Endangered, was recorded too.
Three plant taxa are thought to be strictly endemic to Pande and found nowhere else: Tricalysia bridsoniana var. pandensis, Shirakiopsis sp. nov. and Leptactina sp. A of FTEA. The survey found the populations of two of the three to be “extremely low or possibly extinct”.
The Important Bird Area listing, and what it covers
Pande is genuinely part of an Important Bird Area, but not on its own. The site is “Pande and Dondwe Coastal Forest”, a combined listing with a separate, unmapped forest area south of Dar es Salaam, identified by Baker and Baker in Important Bird Areas of Tanzania (2002), and now a confirmed Key Biodiversity Area, site 7012, last assessed in 2004. The TFCG survey states that “Pande is included in the important bird area on the basis of its populations of Southern banded snake-eagle (Circaetus fasciolatus) and Plain-backed Sunbird (Anthreptes reichenowi)”.
Because the listing is a combined one, not every bird record attached to the site is a Pande record. The KBA factsheet places Sokoke pipit and spotted ground thrush at Dondwe, and names Narina trogon, African broadbill, square-tailed drongo, yellow-streaked greenbul, red-tailed ant-thrush and little yellow flycatcher as forest species at Pande.
The candid part is the sunbird. The plain-backed sunbird, one of the two species Pande was listed for, was recorded two to three times a day during a Frontier-Tanzania survey in 1989 but was not re-recorded at all in 2003; the report notes it “was last recorded in 1989 in Pande”. Of the 142 bird species on the list, ten are forest specialists and 103 — 73 per cent — are not forest-dependent at all.
A forest that has been shrinking
Pande has been cut over for a long time. Since the 1950s, the survey reports, “the forest has been mined for timber, poles and charcoal. Most large trees have been removed and the forest area appears to have declined by approximately 60%.” A rough 2003 estimate put the remaining disturbed coastal dry forest at about 240 hectares, with the authors cautioning that further research was needed to establish the real figure. Burgess and Hipkiss reported in 2002 that much of the centre of the reserve had been completely cleared in the eleven years between 1989 and 2001.
Fire is the pressure the survey singles out: coastal forest is not a fire-climax vegetation type, and removing the large trees has left the reserve unusually vulnerable to fires spreading in from surrounding farmland. The KBA factsheet describes Pande as “now nominally protected as a Game Reserve” and lists logging, small-holder farming, and housing and urban development as ongoing threats.
One species claim deserves care. TAWA’s page lists black-and-white colobus among Pande’s mammals. The 2003 survey recorded none, found local reports unconfirmed, and concluded that this “indicates a drastic decline or even a local extinction of this species”. No later confirmation was found, so anyone told to expect colobus here should treat it as unverified.
Visiting: what is published, and what is not
TAWA lists game viewing, nature walking safaris, bird watching, camping and nature trail cycling as the activities carried out at Pande, along with picnic sites. Camping appearing on that list matters, because it means the reserve is not officially described as day-visit-only. There is no accommodation inside it; TAWA’s guidance is that visitors use accommodation elsewhere in Dar es Salaam.
What is not published matters as much. No entry fee, opening hours, guiding arrangement or booking procedure for Pande could be found on TAWA’s page or from any other official source consulted. Fees for non-consumptive visits are set in law rather than on the page — TAWA’s published index of laws and regulations includes the Wildlife Conservation (Non-Consumptive Wildlife Utilization) Regulations, 2016 and a 2024 amendment to them — but no figure specific to Pande appears in any official source consulted. TAWA does list a postal address, P.O. Box 14762, Dar es Salaam, and an email address, pandegr@tawa.go.tz, for the reserve, and approaching TAWA directly is the only route found for establishing what access currently involves. It should be said plainly that the most recent detailed account of conditions on the ground that could be retrieved dates from 2003, and no source consulted establishes the reserve’s present state.
For access, TAWA describes two road approaches: from Bagamoyo Road via Bunju B for about 8 kilometres, or from Morogoro Road via Mbezi kwa Yusuph for about 16 kilometres. The 2003 survey gives the same two routes, and the wider picture is in the guide to getting around Tanzania. Rainfall is bimodal, with short rains from October to December and a longer wet season from March to May, averaging about 1,200 millimetres a year; mean daily air temperature is 26°C, rising to a highest average of 31°C in the dry seasons. Because the soil is clay-bound sand, TAWA states that the dry season is the best time to visit.
The people this suits are birders and anyone interested in coastal forest — the relevant reading is bird watching, forest walk, and, given how much of Pande’s interest lies in what is left of it, conservation tours.
Common questions about Pande
Where is Pande Game Reserve?
On a low ridge north-west of Dar es Salaam, about 16 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean, in Kinondoni and Ubungo districts. Sources disagree on the distance from the city centre: TAWA says approximately 45 kilometres, the 2003 biodiversity survey approximately 25 kilometres.
Is it a national park?
No. Pande was gazetted as a Forest Reserve in 1952 and re-gazetted as a Game Reserve in 1990 under Government Notice No. 461. It is managed by the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority, not TANAPA, and does not appear in TANAPA’s 2024 General Brochure.
What is the most significant animal there?
The Rondo galago, a very small nocturnal primate listed as Endangered. The 2003 survey trapped seven, estimated 180 to 260 in the reserve, and said its presence alone makes Pande an important area for conservation.
Is Pande really an Important Bird Area?
Yes, as part of a combined site called “Pande and Dondwe Coastal Forest”, now a confirmed Key Biodiversity Area. Pande was included for its southern banded snake-eagle and plain-backed sunbird. The plain-backed sunbird was last recorded there in 1989 and was not found during the 2003 survey.
Can you see black-and-white colobus at Pande?
TAWA’s page lists the species, but the 2003 biodiversity survey recorded none and concluded that there had been a drastic decline or local extinction. No later confirmation was found, so the claim should be treated as unverified.
How do you arrange a visit?
No published entry fee, opening hours or booking procedure for Pande could be found. TAWA lists a postal address and an email address for the reserve, and contacting TAWA directly is the only route found to establish current access arrangements.