Community-based Tourism in Loliondo
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The village of Ololosokwan is located in Loliondo Division, Ngorongoro District. Ololosokwan’s lands border Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, both national treasures thanks to their rich biodiversity, diverse ecosystems and spectacular landscapes. Ololosokwan’s stunning landscape has attracted many tourist companies seeking prime locations to conduct their operations such as hunting, nature guiding and hospitality.
UCRT began working with the village of Ololosokwan to develop fair and equitable principles that would guide future agreements with outside companies wanting to use village land for tourist operations. Within a few years, the village started to enter into agreements with three different tourist companies, and we worked to ensure that the village was represented fairly and that the land would be managed properly with natural resources being protected and adequate revenue being generated for the community.
After entering into fair agreements with three tourist companies, Ololosokwan village has collected over 120,000,000 Tanzanian shillings annually since 2007. Revenue collected from tourist contracts are used for various community activities:
Education support: school fees for all village students at secondary schools, colleges and universities
Health services: hospital bill assistance for village patients and vehicle usage
Infrastructure development: building and expansion of primary and secondary schools
Village cereal banks: for times of drought and food shortage (semi-arid rangelands are prone to cycles of drought and low rainfall)
Village credit schemes: support micro-financing for small scale and co-operative projects.
Additionally, the community benefits from employment of community members by tour operators, allowing them to earn individual incomes.
We helped to build community capacity and educated Ololosokwan citizens about their land and resource rights. We have built the community’s expectations about what proper village financial management should entail. We also have worked to raise awareness with village and customary leadership institutions about their right to negotiate and receive fair compensation for the use of their land and natural resources.
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