Ngorongoro may be ‘deleted’ from World Heritage Sites listing

Thirty years after being categorized among the ‘World Heritage Sites,’ Ngorongoro Conservation area, with its legendary wildlife-filled crater is in danger of being ‘deleted’ from this prestigious listing.

The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization had issued eleven ‘Hercules tasks’ for the management of Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority to execute by April 2009 or else the popular tourist and conservation site will be blacklisted by UNESCO.

Last week, a team of legislators from the parliamentary environment committee held crucial meetings with the NCAA conservators, the authority management, investors and people living in the vicinity to address the issue.

The special mission was led by the deputy Minister of Tourism and Natural resources Ezekiel Maige.

UNESCO’s concern is the increased human activities in the conservation area topped with a population boom, things that are reportedly driving the world’s heritage site into brink of collapse.

UNESCO has stipulated that the ecological deterioration within NCAA brought about by increased farming activities, infrastructural development and more than doubled number of residents with tripling herds of livestock has placed Ngorongoro in a very awkward situation at the moment and unless something is done promptly it will be removed from the list of World heritage Sites in which it got initiated in 1979.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) was established in 1959, curved out of the vast Serengeti eco-system. Ngorongoro covers a total of 8,300 square kilometers and according to the management so far over 1 percent of this is under cultivation.

UNESCO’s latest exclusive report of the ‘Reactive Monitoring Mission’ indicates that the popular tourist site, said to be cradle for mankind suffers from real estate development and ever increasing farms not to mention escalating number of livestock.

The international body opposes cultivation activities within the NCA, traffic congestion into the crater at the rate of 300 vehicles per day on average, proposed major hotel constructions around the crater rim and mass tourism policy. Last year Ngorongoro received 425,000 visitors, previously the number averaged at 350,000 per annum. Experts believe this is unhealthy for the site ecology.

“The anticipated growth in tourism to Tanzania and conservation area in particular poses significant challenges for NCAA” reads part of the UNSECO report, suggesting that it was important to be ahead of the curve and to develop a tourism strategy that will enable the NCAA to proactively manage tourism.

The UNESCO considers that key elements of this strategy should include a focus on encouraging quality rather than mass tourism, major development and infrastructures associated with tourism outside the conservation area.

The UN body is also concerned with erosion associated with cattle access into the crater, demanding NCAA in close collaboration with the Maasai people and the local Pastoralists’ Council to explore alternatives to limit or stop livestock grazing in the crater.

“Although the properties are not in danger, within the context of the World Heritage operation Guidelines, they are certainly facing significant threats,” UNESCO’s report reads.
The NCAA is currently making all means necessary to rescue the site from loosing such an important designation.

Briefing the visiting parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural resources and Environment, Bernard Murunya, the NCAA Acting Conservationist said his authority has already started executing recommendations stipulated in UNESCO’s comprehensive report.

Murunya stated that some 190 households with some 550 people, who immigrated into NCA after 1975, have been relocated to Oldonyo-Sambu where his authority has bought land. “There are still ample plots for other Ngorongoro residents who want to carry on with cultivation after we ban farms here,” he said.

Plans are underway to relocate the NCAA staff from within the conservation area to Kamyn Estate, nearly 5km from Laodore Gate, within an area of 435 acres where residential flats have been constructed.

The NCA has a human population of over 64, 842 more than twice the required number of 25,000 people that the eco-system can support. There are also 13, 6550, herds of cattle and 19, 3056 goats and sheep. The animals have already been banned from descending into the crater.

The NCA is home to the vastly-wide Ngorongoro crater, the lush-steeped Embakai Crater, Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli archaeological sites, Montane forests and several crater lakes. The crater is home to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25,000 animals living in the caldera.

Matengoe Ole Tawo an elder in the area say that during their early days there were plenty of wild animals, but surprisingly when the modern conservation initiative began and animals started decreasing. He advised that modern conservationists should borrow a leaf from the indigenous ones.

The chairman for Parliamentary committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment, Job Ndugai said they were taking stock of the problem confronting the NCA and will advise the government on how best can rescue the site from falling from the grace.

“If UNESCO axes the Ngorongoro from the list of the World Heritage sites, no tourists will come to visit the place again so it is important to comply with their guidelines” Ndugai said.
The Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ezekiel Maige implored the Maasai community living within the NCA to maintain their culture of peaceful co-existence with wild animals and shun cultivation.

http://www.arushatimes.co.tz

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