Bangkok--12 Sep--eTurboNews
Hostile politics against nature conservation projects could hurt Tanzania's fast growing tourism thus bringing this East African wildlife dominated destination into the list of world countries haunted by human interests versus nature.
Recent comments to the media by a politician representing local communities living with animals inside the world's famous Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania tourist circuit had signaled the rat smell to nature conservationists working hard to protect Africa's rare heritage.
In his comments to media this week, a member of parliament representing the nomadic Maasai communities living inside the tourist hot spot of Ngorongoro, Telele ole-Saning'o opposed Tanzania government's plan to evict illegal Maasai immigrants from conserved area.
Telele said Tanzanian government was supposed to compensate evictees from Ngorongoro and re-locate them in open pasturelands outside the disputed area as a gesture of human rights and warned of imminent battle between game officers and the local Maasai cattle keepers.
But Tanzanian government on its side resorted to forceful eviction as the only panacea in discouraging more people to encroach the park which is the World Heritage site currently facing great dangers to lose its natural beauties because of too much human activities inside its protected ecosystem.
Tanzanian Tourism Minister Anthony Diallo had recently inspected the conservation area and ordered immigrants to quit the area to allow sustainable conservation of nature.
The Maasai pastoralists in Ngorongoro wildlife park had emulated their Kenyan kinsmen and women in politicking conservation programs under the government. Kenyan Maasai communities in Narok district had earlier won their battle against Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and given political mandate to control revenues accrued from Amboseli National Park and Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
"Experience from Kenya had a negative results because local communities were not trained enough to handle wildlife conservation programs and tourist business projects there because such undertakings need highly trained and qualified personnel rather than politicians," a senior conservationist from Tanzania National Parks said.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area has been attracting thousands of conservative and non-educated Maasai people taking advantages of free social services offered by the conservation authority because no kind of family business and land use activities allowed inside the conservation area except sanctioned tourist business.
Only livestock keeping is allowed inside Ngorongoro Conservation Area but a big number of conservative Maasai tribesmen have been hibernating in the area looking for cash from hundreds of tourists visiting the area each day.
Ngorongoro is referred to most of its visitors as the last "Garden of Eden" and the home of mankind.
Within the conservation area is the Olduvai Gorge, the site where the famous skull believed to be of the earliest man was excavated in 1959 as well as the 3.6 million-year-old footprints at Laetoli.
Although animal population fluctuates, the permanent water and rich pasturage on the crater floor maintain a resident population of over 25,000 large animals.
More than 60,000 people live inside the conservation area. With the steady increase of people, there has been a great demand for pastureland, food, water and firewood.
The increase of cattle herders in the area has caused big competition between domestic animals and wildlife. The conservation authority is taking corrective measures to restore the natural ecosystem by minimizing the number of cattle grazing inside the area.