Report on wildlife census out soon
MASEMBE TAMBWE
Daily News; Sunday,January 04, 2009 @00:03


Tanzania will soon be in a better position to know the number of wild animals in the country presently when it receives a report of an internal census conducted by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWRI).

The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Ezekiel Maige told the 'Sunday News' yesterday that TAWRI had been awarded the tender to do the census and was supposed to present the report by the end of December 2008.

“The last time census on wildlife was conducted was two years ago. There has been outcry from Members of Parliament and the public to conduct another and we have responded to their concerns,” he said. Recently the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum carried out a survey in the country and published policy recommendations that wildlife was declining in all of Tanzania’s main wildlife areas and ecosystems.

The Forum cited that the declines in wildlife included large protected areas such as national parks, game reserves and forest reserves that amount to about 30 per cent of 886,039 sq km. Mr Maige said such comment was generalisation of facts but he did admit that certain species figure were fluctuating. He said that statistics had shown that elephants and lions were increasing.

The report points out that wildlife population is declining because parks and reserves are insufficient for conserving wildlife and many species need resources during certain times of the year which are found outside the protected areas. It cites also that wildlife is not legally benefiting rural people sufficiently as the government was owning all the wildlife but does not have the capacity to protect wildlife throughout all village and private lands outside the parks and reserves.

The findings of the survey whose data was collected from the late 1980s until early 2000s showed that in all of Tanzania’s main wildlife areas, more species of wildlife were decreasing in abundance than increasing. For instance the dry season count in the Greater Ruaha ecosystem recorded about 73 per cent of species as declining significantly and only about nine per cent as increasing while in the Tarangire ecosystem, 46 per cent of species showed decline in the dry season counts, with no species increasing.

The report which has been presented to the Ministry cited Zebra, which is one of the most widespread and abundant species in the country, declined in 80 per cent of survey zones during both wet and dry season counts and there was no record of an increase in zebra anywhere.

It revealed that some species of antelope such as roan and sable were also undergoing declines and that data showed that sable declined in half of all surveyed areas and while roan declined in all wet season areas. Giraffe have been stable, while elephants increased in most of the survey zones largely because of the banning of the ivory trade and the improvement of internal law enforcement from 1989.