Tanzania: Project to Benefit Residents, Wildlife

Arusha — The people and wildlife living across Tanzania's northern rangelands will benefit from a new project aimed at improving people's livelihood, ecosystems, governance and economic growth across the landscape.

The project's vision is an ecologically and economically thriving landscape that supports both the people and wildlife and is resilient to future stress from climate change and human population growth.

The project, "Endangered Ecosystems - Northern Tanzania" (EENT), will be supported by the US government through USAID over the next five years and coordinated by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and nine implementing partners. This project stems from existing collaboration known as the Northern Tanzania Rangeland Initiative (NTRI).

"People, wildlife, ecosystems, economies, health care - these are all connected issues, but they're often addressed separately," explains Matt Brown, the TNC Africa Conservation director. "This initiative is changing this. We believe that by taking an integrated approach and bringing together different skills from a diverse group of people and organisations, we can have a greater impact."

He added. In his remarks, ambassador Mark Childress highlighted the need for local communities to experience economic benefits from tourism generated by wildlife conservation.

Carbon Tanzania, Honeyguide, Maliasili Initiatives, Oikos, Pathfinder International, Tanzania People & Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Ujamaa Community Resource Team and Wildlife Conservation Society were among the participants.