Reducing land conflicts: Singita Grumeti now leads the way

As human populations expand into wild animal habitats, natural wildlife territory is displaced. Reduction in the availability of natural prey/food sources leads to wild animals seeking alternate sources. Alternately, new resources created by humans draw wildlife in conflict.

Byproducts of human existence offer un-natural opportunity for wildlife in the form of food and sheltered interference and potentially destructive threat for both man and animals.

Competition for food resources also occurs when humans attempt to harvest natural resources such as fish and grassland pasture.

Human–wildlife conflict refers to the interaction between wild animals and people and the resultant negative impact on people or their resources or wild animals or their habitat.

It occurs when growing human populations overlap with established wildlife territory, creating reduction of resources or life to some people and/or wild animals.

The conflict takes many forms ranging from loss of life or injury to humans and animals both wild and domesticated, to competition for scarce resources to loss and degradation of habitat.

As human-wildlife conflicts inflict direct, indirect and opportunity costs, the mitigation of human-wildlife conflict is an important issue in the management of biodiversity and protected areas.

Human–wildlife conflict is defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as "any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations or on the environment.

Human–wildlife conflicts have occurred throughout man's prehistory and recorded history.
Amongst the early forms of human-wildlife conflict is the predation of the ancestors of prehistoric man by a number of predators

It is on this background that Singita Grumeti donated a plotter machine worth 8.7m/- that is expected to help in solving land conflicts in the wildlife-rich district of Serengeti in Mara Region.

The plotter machine which produces coloured maps will also help the speed up on the on-going exercise made by Serengeti district council to introduce land use plans in villages.

We applaud the gesture shown by Singita Grumeti because it shows the company’s commitment to provide significant contribution for the sustainable conservation of the great Serengeti- ecosystem in-collaboration with key stakeholders including the Serengeti district council.

In the same vein, the machine will further help to address conservation challenges associated with land and human/ wildlife conflicts in the area. We call upon stakeholders to emulate Singita Grumeti’s contribution.

In 2002, the Grumeti Community and Wildlife Conservation Fund, a not-for-profit organisation, was granted the right to manage and conserve about 350,000 acres, for the benefit of Tanzania, Africa and the world. Four years later, Singita took over the management of the property, at the request of the concessionaire.

Then began the task of generating via low impact tourism, funding is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the reserve through conservation and community partnerships.