TRAVEL : Exploring Randilen, a wildlife teeming area

As a naturalist I recently experienced one of the success stories in protecting nature and improving communities’ livelihoods, first-hand.

Randilen located in Monduli, Arusha region north of Tanzania has in the recent past interested a few natural lovers with its land teeming with wildlife and thousands of livestock including varied landscapes. My bucket list tick here is bold.

Randilen is a community-based organization (CBO) formed by a collection of eight villages. It is largely made up of Mswakini, Mswakini juu, Naitolia, Lemoot, Nafia, Lookisale, Oldonyo, and Lengolwa. The villages now host the Randilen wildlife management area (RWMA). Key in their aim is to conserve the RWMA as part of Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem for biodiversity, tourism, and socio-economic of RWMA community members and surrounding areas.

Nature dominates every living creature in Randilen and the footprints of human beings are light. Attracted by nature, it’s impossible not to feel the connection. Randilen spanning in 77,000 acres of wilderness, is a dispersal area for many faunas, a conduit for migratory wildlife in the Tarangire and Lake Manyara ecosystems including the Manyara ranch. Its evolving history captivated me.

Its good times were shattered when poaching, human encroachment became the unwitting epicenter of devastation, during which wildlife migratory paralysed, according to Mr Meishurie Melembuki, the manager at the RWMA. The eternal conflict between poaching and conservation in Africa is an age-old problem, and until a few years ago, so was the story here.

RWMA began in 2012 when it was set up by the Tanzania government and USAID initiative. The WMAs formed across the country are meant to help communities and protect nature as well as gain some revenue from tourism activities in their areas.

RWMA’s evolved great success, resulting from the support of stakeholders such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Honeyguide. TNC is a world leading conservation organisation working to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people while the latter is dedicated to helping communities develop and build conservation models that benefit livelihoods and ecosystems.

The work of TNC and Honeyguide has seen the protection of verdant habitat full of wildlife including the support to hiring executive officers, the manager and the accountant who are ably managing the RWMA to benefit communities.

Focusing on protection Alphonce Mallya said the abundance of wildlife places a distinctive stamp on the conservation work, in which locals played a critical role. The story here is inspirational and the tireless work of TNC, Honeyguide has set the benchmark for successful conservation work.

Proving its overwhelming success RWMA could be a bright star model of other WMAs in Tanzania.

Communities here are enjoying new health care facilities, new schools with sponsorships and employment. Young men have found employment as game scouts, according to Meishurie. Game scouts from the local community have enthusiastically embraced conservation skills as they protect nature. Meishurie said they have recruited 26 so far.

Inspired by its story of protection I joined Alphonce Mallya from TNC and Ng’orongo Nyamoni from Honeyguide to explore and discover Randilen.

We drove away in search of wonder. Alphonce Mallya stopped the car along the way peered down at the soft, porous dirt, where he spotted a hoof of prints and elephants dung.

Moments later we were extraordinary lucky to spot a gerenuk. The lush bush forest and the varied tree species mesmerized me, as did the sightings of elephants and buffalos, two of the most plentiful wildlife in this area. The nearby Tarangire national park has the highest elephant population in the Northern Tanzania parks.

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