Executive Talk with Conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority in Tanzania

(LEFT: Dr. Freddy Manongi, Conservator for Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority)

TANZANIA (eTN) - Among key dignitaries attending the week-long, ongoing International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Symposium in South Africa, is the Conservator for Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, one of Africa’s tourist hotspots, Dr. Freddy Manongi.

In recognizing the role of conservation for responsible tourism and community development initiatives, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority in northern Tanzania stands as a model example of a place in the world where local communities have been given a stake in tourism benefits.

Established in 1959 and covering an area of 8,300 kilometers, Ngorongoro is a place where wildlife and humans live in a multiple land-use plan for conservation and livestock pasturing uses.

Together with the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro supports the greatest concentration of wildlife left on Earth.

In this eTN Executive Talk, Dr. Manongi gives a highlight on community benefit strategies carried out in the Conservation Area.

eTN: Your are going to attend and present a paper at the IIPT Symposium in Johannesburg, and will also discuss issues on conservation and community in Ngorongoro. What are your views about this?

DR. MANONGI: Involvement of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) in the IIPT Symposium comes timely. NCAA needs to share fifty five years of experiences in practicing the multiple-use model where communities live in harmony with wildlife conservation and tourism development. The case study would perhaps shape global policies on tourism and the local community.

eTN: Can you tell us how conservation benefits local communities in Ngorongoro?

DR. MANONGI: In order to guarantee peace in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), local communities must be given rights, benefits of tourism, and become responsive towards wildlife management in the Conservation Area. Education is key in making sure that local communities are aware of the benefits brought by conserving wildlife so that they support wildlife conservation initiatives. Without awareness, communities would feel isolated and create havoc in the future.

eTN: The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has been advocating a concept of sustainable tourism, mostly looking at local communities. How aware are the Maasai communities on tourism inside the Conservation Area?

DR. MANONGI: Tourism impacts the local community of NCA in myriads of ways. Wildlife Tourism accounts for all the income of NCAA, more than half of the jobs in NCA and surrounding areas. The majority of those employees come from the local population.

A majority of them also use their wages to purchase goods and services locally. The money invested into our local economy by tourists circulates throughout our economy several times over, providing an ongoing economic impact that would disappear entirely without tourism.

The NCAA spends about twenty percent of its wildlife tourism income, about US$7 million to promote the interests of the local population, especially health, livestock development, roads, water, and education projects.

eTN: How are you prepared to balance relationships between local communities and the wildlife conservators to avoid conflicts over pastureland in Ngorongoro?

DR. MANONGI: Conflicts between communities and wildlife (including NCAA) can be minimized through holistic planning. Conflicts can also be resolved if NCAA embraces principles of community-based wildlife management, which are rights, benefits, and accountability. Conflicts can as well be minimized through participatory zoning of the Conservation Area and respecting the zoning scheme by all parties.

eTN: Climate change effects are looming in Africa, threatening Ngorongoro and other wildlife conservation areas. Had you ever noted such a situation?

DR. MANONGI: Climate change has impact in our area as well. Seasonal rains have dropped in percentage with low raining output. Unreliable rains had so far changed the ecological set up in Ngorongoro, through wildlife migration trends which force the wild animals to move from their natural habitats to other areas in search of grass and water. Livestock inside the Conservation Area had as well been affected due to lack of pastures and water scarcity.

eTN: Taking into reality that livestock is the major economic activity sustaining local communities here, what are your plans to make it more sustainable?

DR. MANONGI: We are implementing a plan which will see the communities getting more benefits or incomes through modern husbandry. Under such an arrangement, we are educating and encouraging the Maasai communities in the Conservation Area to keep few cattle, but of high quality in terms of beef and dairy products.

The Authority (NCAA) is working closely and collaboratively with local communities to ensure an optimum use of a small pastureland for higher output and profitable livestock products.

We are looking at fewer but quality livestock which could withstand weather changes. Our plan is to establish a modern cattle ranch and a butchery so as to support the communities to get high-quality livestock and higher prices of beef. Pastoralist communities in the Conservation Area could sell beef to the tourist hotels operating in the Conservation Area and outside, to other hotels and lodges, hence getting more incomes for their families.

eTN: How had lodge investments benefitted local communities, hence responsible tourism, in Ngorongoro?

DR. MANONGI: Still, there are few tourist lodges established inside the Conservation Area. Please note that about 50 percent of tourists visiting Ngorongoro are lobbied or wooed by private tour and hotel operators. Lodges and hotels have a big role in generating our revenues. As of last financial year, NCAA had generated close to US$50 million, out of which, 20 percent was allocated to local communities.

Our target is promoting of responsible investments through sustainable use of the conservation land and taking care of local communities.

Please note that the NCAA spends more than US$1.5 million to support communities with cereals since we are not allowed to farm inside the conservation area.

eTN: Ngorongoro is among the World Heritage sites. What is your opinion on this?

DR. MANONGI: Tanzania had applied through UNESCO, to register the NCAA among World Heritage sites. We have been registered a UNESCO Heritage site. We are proud to have this area counted among World Heritage sites in Africa and the world. Under our General Management Plan, we are working hard to maintain the status and standards to ensure that Ngorongoro will remain a World Heritage site and maintain this status.

eTN: Thank you so much Conservator for availing your precious time to speak with eTN for the best of the IIPT Symposium in Johannesburg in South Africa, which has been devoted to reflect legacies of the world’s three great champions of peace and non-violent resistance, namely Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., with the aim of affirming these legacies by building bridges of tourism, friendship, and peace in regions throughout the world.

 SOURCE; eTN Tanzania