Wildlife sanctuaries benefit from cautious ‘exploitation’

For instance, how many hotels or lodges should stand in the likes the Serengeti, Mikumi and Manyara national parks, the Selous and Ruaha game reserves or the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) before it is decided that the “development” has gone way too far?

Countries around the globe have always concerned themselves with the need to strike some sort of balance between safeguarding and promoting the world’s natural attractions and strategically exploiting them for the good of humankind.

People have often wondered aloud whether allowing in huge numbers of foreign tourists was not to the detriment of the host countries’ cultural and other values and was therefore not worth entertaining or encouraging.

Some governments have demanded that investors and tourism sector watchdogs heed experts’ advice on the putting up of tourist hotels in wildlife sanctuaries.

The demands have followed growing concern over the ever-rising levels of human activities, including property development, inside the sanctuaries. As happened, some of the activities contravened national and international environmental guidelines meant to maintain an ecological balance in those natural resources.

At one point, some seven years ago, Serengeti National Park boasted six hotels and four camping sites. It is noteworthy that the park is on the prestigious list of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites and subjecting it to too much “development” could jeopardise its status.

In Tanzania, fortunately, the government has often insisted that thorough evaluation of the environmental and overall impact of the construction of the hotels, etc., be made before further development is undertaken.

With such a cautious strategy in place, it would be perfectly all right for investors to direct their financial and other resources into the likes of the expansive Ruaha National Park that would also benefit from such initiatives.

Incidentally, it is said that Ruaha is the third biggest national park in Tanzania after Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), while Serengeti was in 2006 regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

But it will be recalled that UNESCO is on record as having once threatened to scrap the world-acclaimed NCA from its list of World Heritage sites if the ecological deterioration there was not arrested.

What irked the UN agency was a perceived surge in human activities within the NCA and its legendary crater that were deemed incompatible with conservation interests.

To its credit, the government swiftly banned farming inside the site and began working on a comprehensive plan to relocate some 60,000 local residents – mostly members of pastoralist communities – from the area.

It is also to be noted that Tanzania has custody over all these natural resources on behalf of humankind, meaning the current international community and future generations.

Accordingly, the country must ensure that human activities such as engagement in agriculture, use of motorised vehicles and construction of hotels and lodges in national parks and game reserves fully complies with the laid down tourism policy and related nationally and internationally binding rules and regulations.

Wildlife sanctuaries have for long stood as the pillars of Tanzania’s tourism industry, and there is every need to responsibly exploit them while protecting them against activities and trends likely to expose their survival to risk.