Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

This conservation area is located in northern Tanzania and has an area of approximately 80,000 km². It covers plains, savannahs, tropical forests and bushes. The protected area was established in 1959. The land use is diversified. The area is a habitat for wild animals and a traditional pastoral area for the semi-nomadic Masai people. It also contains the largest caldera in the world, the Ngorongoro crater. The distribution of globally endangered species makes this area ecologically important. It provides an ideal habitat and migration route for wildlife, such as Africa’s wild horses, zebras, gazelles and other animals, to the northern plains. In addition, archaeological research has uncovered evidence of human evolution and of the interactions between humans and the environment, including the oldest human footprints from 3.6 million years ago.