THE Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) has mentioned
its progress achieved during the 2013 Joint Natural Resources Sectoral
Review meeting (JNRSR) where several issues were raised by participants.
Progress achieved in implementation of issues raised was to revise
Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) Regulations (2012) addresses concerns
from the local communities particularly on revenue generated from
tourist hunting, review of the No-Consumptive Wildlife Regulations
(2008) is under way for revenue that is generated from Non-Consumptive
Wildlife Utilisation activities.
In May 2014, MNRT announced a joint Ministry of Local Government Task
Force to better define "Devolution of Authority to local communities"
in the context of Wildlife and natural resource management and
conservation at community level.
It also meant to improve governance and coordination of all wildlife
and natural resource conservation efforts at district level through
clear lines of duties and responsibilities among relevant
district/ward/village institutions.
According to Acting Director for Wildlife, Herman Keraryo, the
government has both formalised and non-formalised strategies to combat
poaching, stressed that formal strategies include the national elephant
and rhino management strategies.
Issues raised were skewed benefit sharing mechanism between the
central government and local authorities due to variations in costs of
managing wildlife, insufficient government strategy to combat poaching
and unavailability of historical data on poaching.
Others were political interference when wildlife sector is addressing
poaching, insufficient transparency in revenue collection, delays in
disbursement of funds to Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) District
Councils and Villages among others.
Informal strategies include special operations that are conducted
from time to time depending on the circumstance. Apart from the special
operations, the government conducts routine anti poaching patrols in and
outside protected areas for the purpose of curbing poaching.
Mr Keraryo presented a paper entitled "An overview of the Wildlife
Sub Sector: Achievements, Challenges and Priorities for financial year
2014/15" recently in Dar es Salaam at the 2014 Natural Resources Sector
Review meeting.
The vision of the Wildlife Policy of 2007 is to have sustainable
conservation of wildlife and wetlands while the mission is conservation,
management and development of wildlife and wetlands resources and
sustainable utilisation that will contribute towards poverty reduction.
In 2014, 437 Game Wardens (Rangers) were recruited and deployed to
respective field stations to strengthen anti-poaching activity, the aim
is to recruit a total of 2,000 wildlife rangers to fill the current
staff gap by 2016/2017.
On the issue of insufficient transparency in revenue collection, the
government has introduced electronic permitting systems for Tourist
Hunting and Photographic Tourism activities since 2012 and 2013
respectively in order to increase efficiency, transparency and revenue
collection as well as minimise corruption surrounding the society.
Mr Keraryo says the government has been working with stakeholders
including local communities to create awareness on land use plan and
emphasise the use of land according to the land use plans.
More than 90 per cent of the investments in wildlife based tourism in Wildlife and Urban Areas are owned by the private sector.
The government has put in place policies that attract more
investments by the private sector including putting in place the Private
Public Partnership (PPP).
The Ministry has set its three priority actions 2014- 2015 as to
finalise preparation of National Anti poaching Strategy which expected
to be launched early this month, to launch the Tanzania Wildlife
Management Authority (TAWA) by June 2015 and to increase revenue
collection from 28 to 38bn/- by 2015.
Acting Director for Forest and Beekeeping, Mr Paulin Mafuru says the
sector is facing various challenges for instance lack of investment in
sustainable charcoal production and beekeeping, inadequate trained
funding by both local and Central government.
He says despite law enforcement, yet illegal activities like
uncontrolled harvesting and marketing of bee products (honey and
beeswax) are still taking place in some places and forests areas.
Presence of illegal exit points along the coast shores or borders which
are used for illegal exportation of forest products are also another
challenge facing Forest and Beekeeping Sector.
In order to curb those challenges, the sector has promoted investment
in beekeeping as well as sustainable charcoal production, law
enforcement and government would continue to get attention to address
illegal activities and trade of forest and bee products.
Other actions taken is to strengthen awareness and participatory
involvement of communities and other stakeholders to enhance
conservation and sustainable utilisation of bee and forest resources
also involve decision makers in sustainable forest management.
Tanzania has a great treasure of unique resources of tourism
including wildlife, natural forests, sea beaches, mountains, rivers,
lakes, cultures of different ethnic people, friendly people and
beautiful weather, making it the popular destinations in Africa and the
entire world.
Each region, district and other parts making Tanzania is endowed with
a diverse attractions which are mainly centred on a well established
network protected areas including 16 National Parks, 28 Game Reserves,
Wildlife Controlled Areas 44, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, 3 Marine
Parks, various historical and cultural areas and more than 12,517,000
hectares of forest reserves.
All these exceptional resources is a result of excellent environment
and natural resources conservation efforts where Tanzania is the only
country in the world which has allocated more than 25 per cent of its
area of land as protected areas.
No doubt that, the World Economic Forum reports on Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness, ranks Tanzania among the top in the world with regard
to richness in natural resources, among other the tourism product of
Tanzania include Northern Tourism Circuit with attractions such as
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Olduvai Gorge and National parks.
The tourism sector plays a crucial role as a growth driver and as an
income generator (for the government through taxes and for the country
as a whole through foreign exchange. The aim for the country is to
triple the amount of current visitors whilst increasing the revenue
collections.
The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP)
identifies tourism as a major driver of the economy in Tanzania. The
strategy was promulgated to highlight poverty and further to seek for
means of alleviating poverty and improve the economy.
According to director for Tourism Mr Zahoro Kimwaga, the tourism
division has developed areas of focus in implementation of the plan to
be realised by June 2016.
The areas include expand tourism products through identification of
potential tourist attractions and assist in improving the quality for
the existing products in twelve regions, collecting and analysing of the
tourism statistics and providing knowledge and skills to staff.
The division plan to review and update of the 1999 National Tourism
Policy and implementation strategies, 2002 Tourism Master Plan and
Regulations, increase promotion of tourism products and services both
for domestic and international markets through local events and world
organised events among others.
Despite having various challenges in the tourism sector, many
visitors are still satisfied with what they see and the service they
receive.
Tanzania as a developing country can conserve their natural resources
while at the same time raise the tourists' inflow in a sustainable way,
hence bringing the whole concept to reality.
"The government of Tanzania will continue to take required measures
to ensure that development and promotion of tourism is carried out in a
sustainable manner in order to conserve and preserve our natural and
cultural resources," Mr Kimwaga noted.
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