The Challenges
If wild areas are to be governed by the communities that live there, education and capacity building are essential, while for wildlife populations to grow, solutions need to be found to resolve human-wildlife conflict. In order to change the long-term picture, we need to address these challenges.
Educating a growing population
A stream of chattering children gather on the dusty ground outside a school in Tanzania, their neat uniforms in stark contrast to the dilapidated classrooms nearby. Peer inside, and you’ll see up to a 100 boys and girls crowded into a single room, with just one teacher at the front. The walls are cracked and the windows broken. It’s not typical of all Tanzanian schools of course, but in rural districts, this is often the reality.
Africa has the youngest population in the world, and it’s growing fast. There are multiple challenges facing the education system in rural areas bordering East Africa’s protected spaces, including a shortage of qualified teachers, a scarcity of resources, and the run-down nature of the environment where learning is taking place. Yet, the importance of education in rural communities cannot be overstated. It’s the key to self-reliance, environmental stewardship, and community ownership of the business of conservation.
Changing the economic value
A growing human population is having to survive on ever-squeezed parcels of land, and the need to eat and make money can result in habitat loss and poaching. A large part of creating a sustainable conservation solution lies in changing the economic model and putting a value on wilderness and wildlife. The creation of Wildlife Management Areas in Tanzania and Conservancies in Kenya provide an opportunity for local communities to derive economic benefits from their land, while still allowing the controlled grazing of livestock to maintain pastoralist lifestyles or other traditional economic activities.
Tourism can and does generate significant income but is rarely enough to fund both livelihoods and conservation. Projects aimed at diversifying local incomes, alongside new revenue streams created through carbon and biodiversity credits, offer new ways to change the economic value of wild spaces.
Building Capacity
The know-how to manage the business of conservation needs to be installed at a local level if communities are to lead the future of conservation on their doorstep. The ability to manage the natural resources of Africa’s wild spaces can only be achieved through training in essential areas such as business, accounting, law, and communication.
With the right skills installed, it’s possible to build a community’s capacity to manage its own conservation and deal with the administration and infrastructure that goes with it. This is the most effective way to ensure that community ownership of its local environment is sustainable and rewarding.
Meshurie Melembeki (pictured above) Manager of Randilen WMA in Tanzania says, “Every village needs to be able to plan their own development projects, and importantly, every village is capable of doing so with the right support.”
Keeping wild spaces open
The serpentine path of life and death that the migration traces is a crucial element of the ecosystem’s health, sustaining countless species in its wake. Yet this expansive canvas is under threat. The unchecked spread of fencing and land fractioning endangers the natural rhythms of Africa’s wild landscapes, notably in Kenya’s Greater Mara.
Conservancies and Wildlife Management Areas are pivotal in curbing this trend and preserving migratory routes and biodiversity, although fences continue to be erected within and along boundaries, often at alarming rates. The Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association has facilitated the removal of fences on approximately 2,025 hectares to enhance habitat connectivity in Kenya. Through community-led conservation policies and initiatives, alongside the expansion of protected areas, it is possible to slow down the trajectory of physical enclosures in these ecosystems.
Living with predators
Tanzania has the highest population of lions in Africa, and the communities who live close to their territories often struggle to co-exist harmoniously with the apex predators on their doorstep.
There are approximately 24,000 lions in Africa, down from 200,000 a century ago. East Africa remains one of the last strongholds for the species, with Tanzania home to about 50% of the remaining population. Lions navigate a precarious existence, sharing their territory with growing human populations. Their domain often crosses with the expanding footprints of human settlements. As a result, lion populations encounter problems, as livestock naturally trigger their predatory instincts, creating a flashpoint for human-wildlife conflict.
Balancing their preservation with the needs of local communities is a complex, delicate dance. The spaces they inhabit need to remain wild, while people must be able to farm their livestock too.
Farming on the edge
The people living where wild protected areas and human settlements meet, come into contact with large species such as elephants, often with disastrous results for both.
It’s inevitable that communities living on the edges of protected spaces, and who are reliant on farming, will come into conflict with crop-raiding elephants. Interactions can be problematic on many levels. Farmers defending their crops can be killed or injured, the crop itself can be destroyed, and the elephants may also be hurt by farmers trying to scare them off or killed in revenge attacks. If conservation is successful, then the problem is further compounded as elephant populations grow.
It is critical to ensure that the cost of living alongside wildlife is mitigated for the people who rely on small-scale farming in rural areas, and human-elephant-conflict reduced if they are to engage with and support conservation measures.