The Chicago Zoological Society awarded Niwaeli Kimambo a Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Endangered Species Fund grant to conduct field research this summer on improving forest connectivity for a critically endangered primate, the Rungwecebus kipunji. The grant funds targeted conservation-related research that would directly help an endangered species. Her work will analyze tree cover trends in a gap that separates two forests that are the main habitat for the primate. She will identify reforestation trajectories from tree farming and from natural forest regeneration in order to make recommendations on how to quickly bring about improved habitat connectivity for the kipunji. She is conducting her work in collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Society’s Southern Highlands Conservation Programme in Tanzania.

Kimambo is a Master’s student with a focus on people-environment geography. Her faculty advisors are Lisa Naughton and Matt Turner.