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How communities participate in wildlife care

Women at Mwada Village in Babati District, Manyara Region, put a Maasai traditional garb on WWF International President Yolanda Kakabadse (centre), shortly after she had presented conservation award certificates to leaders of 19 wildlife management areas recently. PHOTO | LUCAS LIGANGA     

What you need to know:

The total population in the 10 villages forming the WMA is 19,989 people. The area covers 280 square kilometres. Residents in these villages are mainly from the Mbugwe, Barbaig, Iraqw and Maasai ethnic groups.

Babati. “In 2011, each of 10 village governments was allocated Sh26 million from our Wildlife Management Area (WMA) to construct classrooms, dispensaries and teachers’ houses,” says 71-year-old Noah Teveli, a founder member of Burunge WMA gazetted in 2006 in Babati District, Manyara Region.

“The income from our WMA also helps us to pay school fees for our children, and we are now able to pay village game scouts who help to protect natural resources in our area,” adds the Maasai elder from Olasiti Village, one of the 10 villages forming the Burunge WMA.

The total population in the 10 villages forming the WMA is 19,989 people. The area covers 280 square kilometres. Residents in these villages are mainly from the Mbugwe, Barbaig, Iraqw and Maasai ethnic groups.

On July 19, this year, Leveli was among the happiest members of the Burunge WMA after the WWF’s International President, Ms Yolanda Kakabadse, had travelled all the way from the global environmental organisation’s headquarters in Switzerland to award Burunge and 18 other WMAs across the country in recognition of their outstanding achievements and commitment in conservation of wildlife resources.

Ms Kakabadse presented the ‘WWF Leaders for a Living Planet’ award to the 19 WMAs and one Authorized Association Consortium (AAC) in recognition of the preservation of habitats essential for survival of threatened and endangered species and their significant contribution to sustainable wildlife conservation on village lands in the country. AAC is the apex body for the WMAs.

The 19 WMAs serve 146 villages across the country with a population of about 410,000 people while 20 other WMAs are awaiting official recognition by the government.

The 19 WMAs, home to iconic species such as elephants, lions, giraffes, hyenas, wildebeest, cheetahs, and wild dogs, currently cover 28,389 square kilometres, equivalent to three per cent of Tanzania’s land area, adding to the existing more than 160,000 square kilometres of national wildlife protected areas.

Burunge WMA’s nearest protected areas are adjacent to Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Kilimanjaro National Park, Arusha National Park and Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

Burunge WMA also provides crucial wildlife corridors linking Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Manyara ranch and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the north.

The area is best known for the migrating buffalo population that moves in and out of Tarangire, while Lake Burunge provides habitat for a range of water fowl, including greater and lesser flamingoes.

Enterprises in the Burunge WMA include trophy hunting, joint venture tourism agreement with Tanganyika Wilderness Camps, lodging that includes Maramboi Tented Camp, Lake Burunge Tented Lodge and Tarangire Osupuku Lodge.

Supporting organisations in the Burunge WMA are the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Authorised Association Consortium (AAC) and Honey Guide Foundation.

“This event helps show the larger conservation picture of how we are connected to nature, inspire others and recognise the many stakeholders and donors who play key roles in making such actions happen and for mobilising powerful new conservation commitments,” said Ms Kakabadse shortly after she had presented the prestigious award.

“Without natural resources such as water, trees and soil there is no life for humankind,” added Ms Kakabadse, former Ecuadorian minister for Environment and former president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from 1996 to 2004.

She said these inspiring examples of environmental leadership demonstrated community responsibility to protect the environment, and represents an important contribution to the achievement of both Tanzania’s national biodiversity conservation action plan and WWF’s conservation goals.

“When added together, these actions make a major contribution to a truly living planet for current and future generations,” said Ms Kakabadse at the ceremony witnessed by central and local government agencies, local communities from Burunge WMA, and member villages and representatives from nearby WMAs of Enduimet and Randelin in Arusha Region.

WWF Tanzania, with support from the USaid has provided policy and direct support to WMAs in Tanzania since 2005, with a number of other partners, including the AWF.

Since the establishment of the WWF Leaders for a Living Planet award in 2000 over 100 such awards have been made worldwide, recognising a wide variety of conservation initiatives.

In Tanzania, this award was first made to the Somanga Village Beach Management Unit (BMU) in Lindi Region for “managing fisheries resources and protecting the marine environment, habitats and species for future generations”.

AWF country director for Tanzania, Mr John Salehe, said his conservation organisation has supported the processes in setting up the WMAs in Burunge, Randilen, Enduimet, Makame and Natron in Manyara and Arusha regions. Mr Salehe said the successes for the AWF facilitated WMAs is a result of the government leadership both at the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, at district and community levels.

“The revenues that have been realised in the already operational WMAs has reached the communities, and reduced the burden from families and districts especially in development projects,” said the AWF Tanzania boss.

However, Mr Salehe said the running of WMAs was not an easy journey, adding: “There are lots of challenges to accommodate changes, but with the existing strong leadership, WMAs will win.”

His observations on challenges facing some WMAs were echoed by Mr Teveli saying some politicians were interfering with the running of the WMAs for personal gain.

“Some of the politicians, including ward councillors, want to use benefits accrued from the WMAs to fatten their pockets, especially during elections,” said the 71-year-old man.

The WWF Tanzania country director, Mr Bell’Aube Houinato, said the WWF International president’s commitment to Africa was an inspiration to the global conservation organisation’s work in Africa.

“Africa has been in the news on elephant poaching and other conservation challenges,” said Mr Houinato, adding that these conservation challenges needed collective attention in finding lasting solutions.

He said the WWF was in an operational transformation process which included its recent launching of Africa Vision 2020, which was developed first and foremost to drive greater and more sustainable conservation impact aimed at reversing the trends of biodiversity loss in Africa and worldwide.

The AAC chairman, Mr Amir Mataka, received the award on behalf of the 19 WMAs and thanked WWF and other partners for the support since the WMA implementation process was launched in Dar es Salaam in January 2003.

“It was a tough ride but partners like WWF and indeed the government offered the necessary support to ensure we have a healthy new baby,” said Mr Mataka.

However, the AAC executive secretary, Mr George Wambura, said like many other CBNRM programmes in Africa, WMAs face a number of challenges that call for continued support and cooperation.

Mr Wambura said the challenges included lack of anti-poaching gear, equipment and capacity to protect wildlife resources effectively, under-optimized business opportunities in WMAs coupled with weak business skills and poor and non-transparent governance practices.

He mentioned other challenges facing WMAs as weak institutional and management arrangements, low revenue generation in many WMAs, low awareness among WMAs villages, weak benefit sharing schemes and disbursement arrangement, and land use conflicts as a result of population boom. “AAC is striving to address these challenges so that we can move forward,” said Mr Wambura.

Speaking on behalf of the government, a senior official with the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Leonard Mayeta, thanked WWF Tanzania and other partners for supporting the government and communities in enhancing the management of wildlife resources in the country.

Mr Mayeta said despite a recent upsurge of international illegal wildlife trade which resulted in elephant poaching and threatened the long term survival of endangered species such as rhino and wild dogs, the WWF Leaders for a Living Planet award was an important wake up call to review strategies and approaches in anti-poaching activities throughout the country and to recognise local communities as important and true partners.

 Tanzania’s first community-based Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) were established in 2003, and were designed to pursue three primary areas of focus of resource conservation, rural development, and capacity building for local governance and management.

The WWF has provided policy and direct support to WMAs in Tanzania since 2005, along with a number of other partners, including the AWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Frankfurt Zoological Society, and the PAMS Foundation.

WMAs are community-owned resource management areas, typically located adjacent to or near high-value protected areas. They provide a way for communities to gain economically from managing their wildlife and other natural resources in a sustainable way.

“WWF is uniquely positioned to further improve benefits communities are receiving from WMAs, and strengthen wildlife populations living within WMAs through establishing standardized processes and national support systems,” says Mr Asukile Kajuni, WWF Tanzania deputy programme coordinator for CBNRM.