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Tanzania: Wildlife Use Can't Be Left to Villagers' Control, Says Minister

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
INTERVIEW
7 March 2008

Last week, business reporters Samuel Kamndaya and Mkinga Mkinga interviewed newly appointed Tourism and Natural Resources minister Shamsa Mwangunga, who shed some light on her new job and several critical issues on the development of the sector.

For quite some time now there have been efforts to boost local and cultural tourism. Can you outline what has been achieved in that regard so far?

We have already covered considerable ground. Pangani District in Tanga has been earmarked as a cultural tourism site - with funding from The Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV).

Various places in Mbeya and many other regions have been earmarked as well for the same purpose. Apart from that, the wananchi themselves have developed some 24 sites as their own community initiatives aimed at developing local and cultural tourism.

The Government will only help them on how to meet their goals. We are also welcoming people with similar attractions in their areas to come to us so that together we can map out how to develop them. We are also working with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development to see how we can develop infrastructure in those sites.

There have been complaints from various stakeholders that while developing infrastructure (especially roads) the Government forgets to conduct cultural impact assessments as stipulated in the National Cultural Policy of 1999. That results in important cultural sites being destroyed. What is your position on that?

Despite being new in this ministry, I understand that cultural impact assessments are conducted before road construction or any other infrastructure development begins.

We establish all the sites just before we develop any earmarked land but sometimes, we are left with no option but to destroy them after doing a cost-benefit analysis.

If there is no any other way to change where the road has to pass, and considering the size of the site that will be destroyed in the process, we decide which is beneficial to the nation and that's what we have been doing in the past.

What developments are there on game hunting fees that dominated headlines since the beginning of this financial year?

After the increase, we got reactions from various stakeholders. Some members of Tanzania Hunting Operators Association (Tahoa) said they would be ready to pay the new rates, while others said they would definitely close shop if the new rates were to be implemented.

We initiated talks with them. The first one was chaired by then Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, while the second was chaired by my predecessor, Prof Jumanne Maghembe.

The two parties agreed to reduce the charges. With the new rates in place, we are now bound to collect $18 million from game hunting as opposed to the $27 million envisaged during the presentation of the government budget for the current financial year.

On what ground was the Government convinced to reduce the fees?

We came to realise that the hunters' arguments were genuine. The hunting season lasts for only six months from July 1 to December 31.

The new charges were to begin on July 1, but during budget preparations, little was done to involve them in the process. We came to realise that as July begins, most of the hunting companies have already contacted their clients on what is required for them to come and hunt.

It was, therefore, impossible for them to give information on higher charges to their clients while the season had already begun.

In the second place, we sent our experts for thorough research in countries that we compete with in the hunting business, including South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The experts came back with findings that suggested that we had better reduce the fees in order to compete effectively. The aim was to allow the operators to do business while we also get what we deserve out of their businesses.

Recently your ministry was criticised for adopting a new set of regulations for all non-consumptive wildlife use in Game Reserves and on Village Lands. Some stakeholders claimed that the regulations deny village leaders the powers of controlling wildlife and hunting activities in their areas. What is your comment on that?

We cannot allow villagers to control such important activities because some dishonest businesspeople will utilise that as a loophole to unlawfully exploit our resources.

The villages will be cheated by little money and sell the country's trophies to dishonest people so we knew there was a dire need for the regulations. However, it is not true that we initiated the regulations without involving village leaders. We involved leaders from Wildlife Management Areas though it is true that we can not involve everyone.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803070667.html

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