SafariLands.org: People & Culture: Making wildlife work for local communities

A Maasai community in Monduli in a sensitization meeting. Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife Project encourages village communities living near wildlife areas to take on the responsibility for the well being of wildlife and its habitat, through realising that wildlife is a renewable and lucrative natural resource.

Caption saved as Cullman/ DAVID Erickson, the CHCWP Project Director, hands over a cheque of funds for the development of schools to Monduli District Commissioner, Capt Anthony Malley. The school project was initiated by Premier Edward Lowassa, who is a Member of Parliament for Monduli.

WITHIN the 2005 End of Year report submitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Wildlife Division, the Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife Project (CHCWP) details impressive progress in its resolve to give the local communities a direct benefit from the wildlife.

CHCWP has contributed to the implementation of various community development projects through the generation of funds by application of a 20 per cent surcharge levied against all species taken by Robin Hurt Safaris Clients.

These funds are collected by hunting area and divided equally amongst the participating villages that are within and adjacent to the areas of operation.

"In total, Robin Hurt Safaris and the Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife project have contributed some 200,805 dollars towards the alleviation of poverty and the preservation of the environment the for 2005 period under review," says Mr David Erickson, who is the CHCWP Project Director.

He gave the 2005 breakdown as Village Benefit Funds of 84,242.00 dollars, various additional donations of 28,742.00 dollars and Anti-poaching Operations and Administration of 87,821 dollars.

Founded in 1990 on the conviction that wildlife and its habitat can only be conserved by involving the local people, CHCWP is an example of how tourism and conservation can directly benefit local people.

Mr Erickson says the future of wildlife in Africa rests in the hands of local people who bear the cost of living with wildlife.

The idea is to encourage village communities living near wildlife areas to take on the responsibility for the well being of wildlife and habitat, through realising that wildlife is a renewable and lucrative natural resource.

"Wildlife provides better long-term return through its conservation, than by its over-exploitation," says Mr Erickson. CHCWP currently works with 33 villages, eight districts, and seven regions throughout Tanzania. Funds generated during the hunting season are distributed the following year.

Villages, districts and regions are all informed as to the amount each village will receive, thus ensuring transparency, and each individual village is then responsible for conducting an assembly meeting to discuss the use of funds.

Villages are normally required to formulate complete documentation of the decisions and plans and these documents are then forwarded to the relevant district executive director for his input.

Once all plans have been approved, CHCWP then transfers the money to the village bank account such that the village is then responsible for executing their plans. "This encourages total ownership of the activity and builds capacity at the village level," says Mr Erickson.

CHCWP works specifically through the village and district governments thus fulfilling all obligations to tackle the issue of poverty and capacity building as described within the policies and laws of Tanzania as well within the objectives of the 'Mkukuta'.

The Cullman project is named after Mr Joseph F. Cullman III whose initial contribution was the basis for anti-poaching efforts in certain areas of Tanzania.

Mr Cullman became involved with wildlife conservation in co-operation with Mr Robin Hurt. He felt that wildlife needed to be an attractive, lucrative and beneficial form of land use by local communities and wanted to ensure that wildlife protection would provide benefits toward a community in terms of benefits and poverty alleviation.

To encourage long-term stewardship, it was felt that the local people needed to be made aware that wildlife was a resource if utilised appropriately could provide long-term benefits.

As a further part of stewardship, it was seen that local communities needed to be involved directly in the protection of the resource of which they derive a substantial benefit. Therefore, in direct co-ordination with the government, CHCWP operates anti-poaching patrols whereby local villagers gain further employment while working as village game scouts.

From its inception in 1990 through 2004, in excess of 20,000 snares have been recovered and destroyed and over 500 poachers camps were destroyed. Today, the number of animals saved from excruciatingly painful deaths is estimated to be over 100,000.

Over 21,000 square km are covered by these CHCWP supported anti-poaching teams and the excellent co-operation shared between CHCWP, local villages and the government is one of the longest standing public-private-partnerships currently in operation.

To complete the circle of stewardship, CHCWP is launching a new programme to help raise awareness of the importance of good environmental management and to help communities realise the importance of healthy, functional ecosystems of which the majority of Tanzanians directly depend on for their livelihood security.

Wesley Kaleshu, Programme Officer for the CHCWP Community Healthy and Wellness Education Programme, says: "Our new programme is very exciting as we are combining several traditional approaches in a new and innovative way."

The Health and Wellness Programme is currently in start-up phase. But it has the goals of working with local governments to continue to develop capacity of local governments to manage natural resources, to conduct environmental education activities in the classrooms, and to further raise awareness by showing films in the partner villages in co-operation with the Maajabu Project.

Additionally, the programme will seek out further partnerships with other government and NGO stakeholders to tackle critical threats to the livelihoods of the local people who have the most impact on the environment. Mr Kaleshu further explains: "If people are unhealthy, they can have a negative impact on the environment so this is where we must focus our efforts on."

Over its 16 year history, the Cullman and Hurt Project and Robin Hurt Safaris have endeavoured to link tourism, conservation and development in a truly sustainable way.

"Development is not a problem to be solved," comments David Erickson, adding "but something that is continuous process which all human communities struggle with and we are simply doing the best we can to make wildlife something that is important to the people of Tanzania."