Tanzania: Karatu, Longido Reject Hunters, Mbulu Embraces Them



Arusha Times (Arusha)

2 June 2007
Posted to the web 4 June 2007

Samson Waigwa
Arusha

Karatu district authorities have rejected a request by an Arab hunting firm from acquiring large tracts of land for hunting in Lake Eyasi basin after failing to meet conditions given to them.

Instead UAE Safaris from Abu Dhabi moved to neighbouring Mbulu district where it has been promised thousands of hectares of land for hunting, a move which has raised public outrage.


The Karatu district council chairman Lazaro T. Maasay said the councillors rejected the application because they were suspicious on the nature of hunting the firm intended to carry in the area.

According to him, UAE Safaris applied to the district council in 2005 to have Dumbechand, Matala and Laghangareri villages on the shores of the alkaline lake into their hunting bloc.

"We gave them conditions which they failed to fulfill. But instead of moving out, they went to the villages where they cheated the Wananchi with countless promises", he explained.

He said the firm, which moved to Karatu reportedly after their application for a hunting bloc in Longido district was turned down, did not specify if they intended to kill or harvest live animals.

Mr. Maasay, a councillor for the opposition Chadema party which has retained Karatu constituency since the first multi-party elections in 1995, cited other reasons why the Arab hunters were not granted a hunting bloc there.

He said one of the reasons they objected UAE Safaris to operate in Karatu was that the district authorities had no alternative place to resettle the people living in the villages earmarked as a hunting bloc.

"Most importantly we realised that the same area is occupied by the hunter-gatherer Hadzabe tribesmen who survive on hunting wild animals and fruit gathering" he told representatives of the marginalised communities living in the district.

The district council chairman added that the survival of the hunter-gatherer Hadzabe would be endangered if their land was leased to the Arab firm. He was speaking at a meeting in Karatu.

The firm later moved to neighbouring Mbulu district and is reported to have been promised 4,000 square kilometres of land at Yaeda Chini plains for hunting.

Recently residents in Mbulu, notably the Hadzabe hunter-gathers and nomadic pastoralists living in the area, called on the government to stop "the Arab investor" from taking their land.

The controversial deal is said to have divided the Mbulu district leadership with some opposing the leasing of the land to UAE Safaris and others openly blaming non-governmental organisations for "instigating" the villagers against the project.

Sources close to the district council told The Arusha Times over the weekend that leaders of at least six villages in Yaeda Chini area have signed Memoranda of Understanding with the hunting firm to allow it operate there.

The villages include Yaeda Chini itself, Mongo wa Mono and Eshkesh. The majority of people living in the villages are the hunter-gatherers and nomadic pastoralists.

A district official, speaking on condition of anonimyty, said UAE Safaris intended to enhance conservation of the semi-arid area by re-opening the wildlife corridor that links Lake Eyasi and Marang forests on the edge of Lake Manyara.

"This firm would not go into hunting immediately. It would enhance conservation so that the animal population can increase and at the same time involve Wananchi in fighting poachers" he said.

At least five game posts would be established, according to him. The firm, which has already set up a big camp in the area, has also promised to support Mbulu people in water, school and health projects.

But Mr. Maasay said by rejecting the offer by the Abu Dhabi-based hunting firm, Karatu district had avoided land crisis that would have pittied the Wananchi and the government.

He was speaking at a training seminar organised by TAPHGO, an Arusha-based NGO for pastoralists, hunterer-gatherers and other marginalised communities in the country.

The seminar brought together representatives of mainly the Datoga/Barbaig and Hadzabe tribes and local leaders from several wards and villages within the Lake Eyasi basin in Karatu and Mbulu districts.

A team of Arusha-based journalists which visited the area recently wondered if Yaeda Chini could ever be attractive to international hunting firms. The wild animal population has dwindled over the years.

Researchers and human rights organisations have often warned that the Hadzabe, one of the last surviving hunter-gatherer tribes in Tanzania,may become extinct in the next few years because of pressure on their dwindling traditional habitat.


A just-concluded study by Oxfam says the tiny tribe, whose population does not exceed 3,000, is threatened by dwindlig wild animal population which they depended for food.

They are scattered in the hills surrounding Lake Eyasi, hunting the wild animals and gathering wild fruits and tubers for their daily survival in a harsh environment often hit by severe droughts.

Five districts in four regions have Hadzabe people.These are Meatu in Shinyanga region, Iramba (Singida),Mbulu (Manyara) and Karatu and Ngorongoro in Arusha region.

Just a matter of time......and more $$$ promised to Gov.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
Just a matter of time......and more $$$ promised to Gov.

Mich,
Is this a Bad thing for the game?
ozhunter

Do any of our AR guests have an email contact or even a webpage url for these guys (UAE Safaris)

Are they a bona fide (commercial guide/operator business) or are they a private company without a commercial face to the public ??

Do they only want to (hunt privately) for themselves .... OR do they ALSO in fact offer opportunities commercially to the general tourist public for safaris in the UAE and internationally as well ??

Cheers, Peter

Oz,
It depends on how they conduct themselves. The UAE company is a similar set-up to the infamous Loliondo operator. One "belongs" to the Dubai royal family (I believe) and the former would belong to the UAE royal family. There certainly ain't sufficient game quantities there at the moment to make it a viable commercial hunting operation but then their budget might allow the "translocation" of huge herds of game from somewhere else to rectify the shortfall?

Peter,
It will be a "private" operation for their own personal use.