Context
Tanzania has placed vast areas of the country under protection in order to conserve its globally important ecosystems and wildlife populations. These protected areas and their wildlife are crucial to tourism and the economic development of rural areas. However, to date there have been very few economic benefits for the people living near the protected areas. Population growth and a rising demand for land for animal husbandry and agriculture are increasingly jeopardising protected resources and intensifying the threat of conflict between people and wildlife. Because the local population are not benefiting from the protected areas their commitment to sustainable forms of management is low, which is encouraging non-sustainable management practices and illegal activities such as poaching. Poaching, especially of elephants for the international ivory trade, has increased dramatically in recent years. The elephant population and also other species have experienced a drastic decline. This is posing a serious threat to the attractiveness of Tanzania’s protected areas and their tourist appeal.
The responsible actors have to date not had sufficient coherent mechanisms at their disposal to ensure the protection of the wildlife populations and at the same time offer incentives for the local population to support sustainable resource management.
Objective
Central government, local governments, autonomous protected area authorities and the private sector in Tanzania implement mechanisms to improve the protection of globally important wildlife resources and create incentives for the local population to support sustainable resource management.
Approach
At national level, the project is advising the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) on transforming its Wildlife Division into an autonomous agency - TAWA (Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority) in order to improve the protection and sustainable use of resources with the involvement of the local population. GIZ has deployed two advisors who are supporting this comprehensive process of change.
At a decentralised level, advice is being provided to district authorities in the Northern Serengeti ecosystem. The intention is to achieve better planning, coordination, more transparent management - especially of income and expenditure - and greater involvement of the local population and the private sector in order to make better use of the potential offered by sustainable resource management to stimulate income and employment opportunities. A development worker and a national expert support the planning and natural resource department in each district in carrying out this and other key duties.
The project is an integral part of a joint development project with KfW Development Bank. It supports large-scale infrastructure projects in and around the protected areas in the Northern Serengeti ecosystem and Selous Game Reserve. KfW Development Bank’s cooperation partners for the various financial cooperation modules include the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which will take responsibility for the Selous-Niassa Corridor (module: Sustainable Management of the Selous Game Reserve). Frankfurt Zoological Society (ZGF) is working directly with the local population to carry out activities to promote resource management (module: Development of the Serengeti Ecosystem). It will be involved in drawing up management plans as part of the Sustainable Management of the Selous Game Reserve module.
Results
Drafted with support from GIZ, the change strategy for the establishment of TAWA has been incorporated as an interpretative document into the Tanzanian legal text and granted national recognition. All future TAWA staff have been integrated into the process of presenting the strategy throughout the country. With the help of the Selous Elephant Emergency Project (SEEP), up to EUR 170,000 in funding has been made available for purchasing equipment for rangers (such as uniforms and boots) and spare parts for vehicles used in anti-poaching measures.
Targeted training courses in good financial administration and land use conflict mediation have significantly improved the performance of the participating Serengeti and Ngorongoro districts in terms of the local management of natural resources. At the same time, progress has been made with dialogue on improved benefit sharing systems in the protected areas as a result of establishing and providing targeted support to forums for actors from the public and private sectors and civil society.
Downloads and further information
German Embassy, Dar es Salaam
http://www.daressalam.diplo.de/
GIZ Natural Resources Management Tanzania
http://www.nrm.or.tz/home/
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Tanzania
http://www.mnrt.go.tz/
Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI)
http://www.tawiri.or.tz/
Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA)
http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/
Zoologische Gesellschaft Frankfurt (Frankfurt Zoological Society)
https://www.fzs.org/de/
Support to Local Governance (SULGO)
http://www.sulgo.or.tz/