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Tanzania: Why Villagers Want Land to Remain Tourist Destination

ANALYSIS

By George Semboni

For an observer, the demands of Saunyi, a remote village in the Kilindi District, could seem like just an isolated voices. Led by their Kilindi Legislator, Omari Kigua, the villagers are appealing to the government to have the 3,500 square kilometres Handeni Game Controlled Area upgraded to a National Park to save animals being killed by hunters.

Available information, however, reveals that the Saunyi residents' concerns and desires about the status of the game controlled area are not isolated voices. The area, known by locals as Engusero eKabojo, is also home to the Oryx. According to the African Wildlife Foundation, three species of the Oryx, the Arabian Oryx, Scimitar-horned Oryx and the Beisa Oryx are on IUCN's Red list.

Their habitat is shown by the AWF to be decreasing as human populations grow and expand, resulting in the growth of agriculture, settlements, and roads. The AWF works with governments and villages to designate wildlife corridors-- swaths of land that oryxes use to roam freely and safely from one park, or country, to another.

Corridors link protected areas and allow wildlife to follow rains or travel to their calving grounds. Speaking in Saunyi, a former Village Chairman and Maasai elder, Kilutori Mokoyo said that the current status does not give full benefits to villagers who are supposed to be involved directly in protecting the area against poachers.

Mokoyo said that the Government should upgrade the area to enable villagers close to the game controlled area to benefit from the large expanse of land just as villages neighboring Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) managed parks are benefitting through Corporate Social Responsibility activities. "I am now 53 years old.



I have been living in this area since 1977. The area used to have so many wild and big animals just as a sea," Mokoyo said, adding that wild animal such as giraffe, gazelle, zebra, ostrich, lion, leopard and oryx were so many. The animals have decreased extensively due to increased hunting activities in the game controlled area, he said, emphasizing the need to protect the area by upgrading its status.

Mokoyo narrated that the villagers used to benefit from tourist hunters visiting the area, including the Tanga Cement Company, which helped them in building a dining hall at the primary school and installation of water pumping machines. He also mentioned another resident hunter, whom he identified as Frederico who donated 200 cement bags to build a modern Primary School.

Kigua, who is in his first term as the Constituency's lawmaker, said that the Government should review the status of the Game controlled area with a view to upgrade its status so that the wildlife resources could be used as tourist attractions that can benefit villagers and the district in general.

"Its protection would ensure that the animals, including the rare ones increase in numbers so that many tourists visit and villages benefit from corporate social responsibility schemes by the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA)," he said. Kigua also mentioned the confusion of the name, saying it was unfair to continue to use the name of Handeni because the name suggests it is still in Handeni District.

The Saunyi Ward Councilor, Michael Olisindia said despite seeing so many licensed and unlicensed hunters in the area they have been getting little or no benefit from the activities of the game controlled area.



Olisindia, who was reelected further mentions a border conflict with Simanjiro District, in Manyara Region saying that Simanjiro Game officers have been harassing village game scouts in the Handeni game controlled area camp inside the Saunyi Ward, claiming that the whole game controlled area is in Simanjro. "We are confused as to where our area of jurisdiction starts or ends," he said.

The District Wildlife Officer, Amos Sedereka Mbole admits the existence of a border conflict between Simanjiro, which also has a game controlled area of their own known as Kitway. Mbole said game hunting was halted for the time being from 2010 to 2012 and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWRI) released a new map of the area, which he said, reduced the conflict to some extent.

He mentioned factors that have led to the reduction of the game controlled area as including increased human activities such as increased livestock, farming activities and illegal hunting activities and lack of resources to conduct constant patrols to control such activities. He said that even the Saunyi village is inside the game controlled area in accordance with the former map.

"Currently, patrols are being conducted periodically, once between three to 4 months. This is not enough if one wants to control illegal game activities," said Mbole. Speaking on game licensing, he said that licensing is done by the central government for the bigger animals, but for the smaller species the councils are allowed to provide licenses as Ministry agents.

Saunyi villagers and their legislator's views are also supported by a blog called, Mother Nature Network (MNN) which emphasizes in a report written in the blog on April 25 that research suggests non-hunting tourists play a larger role in conserving Africa's wildlife.



It quotes an Economics at Large report that nature-based tourism does play a significant role in national development, but trophy hunting is insignificant. It says that across investigated countries, trophy hunting revenue was only 1.8% of tourism revenues.

A 2004 study by South Africa's Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit reached a similar conclusion, reporting that nonlethal eco-tourism in private preserves yielded "more than 15 times the income of livestock or game rearing or overseas hunting."

In the report, it is said that each living elephant in Africa, for example, is worth $22,966 per year to its local economy by attracting eco-tourists, according to a 2014 report. "Since elephants live for up to 70 years, that means an elephant can generate $1.6 million during its life span," the report said.

The report further said that trophy hunters often pay tens of thousands of dollars to kill a single animal, and poachers can reportedly net $22,000 by selling a pair of tusks. But an elephant is clearly more valuable to humans alive than dead, possibly by a factor of 76.

The Tanzanian Government could take a cue from AWF and other world conservation lobbies by conserving the area to save the oryxes, which are reportedly missing from several game controlled areas. This could bring make the area more useful to the population as they would benefit directly from corporate social responsibility activities in the protected areas just as those bordering Tanzania National Parks do.

George Semboni is a freelance journalist based in Tanga.