Makame Wildlife Management Area: A Case Study

Nowa Mboi - Makame village, Kiteto District

Nowa Mboi was born in the Makame area of Kiteto District in Northern Tanzania. He is a Maasai agro-pastoralist, raising cattle for profit and wealth and farming maize, sesame and beans for private consumption.

When I was young there was no farming here. There was no WMA (Wildlife Management Area). There was a lot of wildlife – not like today. The population in this area has increased greatly during my life. The people here used to just be pastoralists, but now we have problems like persistent drought which is making it difficult to provide for your family as just a pastoralist. In my life I have never seen drought this bad before. The environmental destruction of this area is being caused by this drought, and also be people from surrounding villages moving into this area to use the land for farming.”

“The Makame WMA was established more than 10 years ago when the need to protect the land increased. As a positive for the village, it has also resulted in some income from tourism. I am a pastoralist, I have cows and goats. Since the WMA was established the land has not been take, and land regeneration is better so there is more feed for my livestock.”

“I have a child in the local school that is being supported by the WMA tourism income. We have been able to use the money as a village to build classrooms for the primary school, which my children now attend. The WMA police also set aside some of the income to provide schooling for children in poor families, which is encouraging local students to attend college in particular.”

“UCRT has provided training on negotiating contracts with investors, which has helped us to maximise the local benefits from tourism activity in the area.”

“UCRT has also improved the governance of this village, increasing the number of women included in local government and improving our financial management. I personally have attended UCRT training on good governance and natural resource management. I learnt that it is very bad to cut down trees in this area because it affects the wildlife. I have also learnt that it is good to protect our land and hold onto it so that we always have access to the natural resources – now and in the future.”

“I hope my children can be agro-pastoralists on this land in the future. For this to happen though we need to protect the land and look after it. The lack of rain is out of our control, but what we can do is continue to protect the WMA from land-grabbing and over-use.”

“I am happy with all the training UCRT undertakes here, but more investment would be great. Continued training in good governance will help our village further to look after the local people here. Since the training began I have begun attending the village assembly and council meetings and I see that many others are also beginning to participate. It is a positive step for our village, our people, and the land we live off.”