Promoting Tanzania’s Environment, Conservation and Tourism project (PROTECT) Underway
TNRF Promoting Tanzania’s Environment, Conservation and Tourism project (PROTECT) team conducted a 10days field trip (28th Aug – 6th Sept) to Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) with the aim of meeting WMAs management team, members of various WMAs committees, villagers and investors.
The team visited WMAs in Ikona (Serengeti), Makao (Meatu), Mbarang’andu (Namtumbo-Songea) and Mbomipa (Iringa). The main objective was to discuss with the constituent communities around the WMAs and the investors on the issues that affect viability of the WMAs as both conservation and economic opportunity for communities and what options are there for better improvement of the inviable WMAs.
The field visit was productive in terms of willingness and transparency through sharing information, opinions, and grievances on the WMAs concept as both a land use and economic opportunity.
The outcome of the discussions will help generate policy and advocacy messages to be shared with the policy makers to ensure that the prior objectives of establishment of the WMAs of ensuring rural economic development, enterprise development and wildlife conservation are met.
PROTECT is a five-year intervention project funded by the USAID and implemented by International Resources Group (IRG). The objective of PROTECT is to address the ever changing characteristics in Tanzania that threaten biodiversity conservation and constrain private sector-led tourism growth. Precisely, PROTECT project will achieve its objective by implementing activities in four specific areas: i) Policy, Research, and Advocacy; ii) Institutional strengthening; iii) Nature-based economic strengthening; and iv) Combating wildlife poaching and trafficking.
Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) has a role to implement one of the activities under this project which includes: policy, research and advocacy through “Engaging Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Private Sector in developing Advocacy Agendas”. Among the activities that TNRF is implementing include
i) Conducting a rigorous analysis of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) economic viability/inviability and develop options for inviable WMAs.
ii) Building capacity of civil society and private sector to develop advocacy agendas around conservation and tourism.
iii) Facilitating a series of meetings between civil society, private sector and the appropriate government institutions to identify conservation issues of concern and find areas of convergence around which action plans and advocacy will be developed.