Selous Conservation Programme (SCP)
Case Study C0088
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| Date | 1996 |
| Agency | Tanzanian and German Governments |
| Donor/support agency | Frankfurt Zoological Society African Wildlife Foundation WWF |
| Project type | Implemented by agency |
| Context(s) | Protected area |
| Geographic coverage | Tanzania |
| Locality | Coast, Morogoro, Lindi, Pwani and Ruvuma regions |
| Biodiversity focus | Ecosystem/landscape |
| Development focus | Local communities |
| Conservation goals | Safeguard the ecological integrity of the SGR and improve relations between the SGR and its surrounding human popualtion |
| Poverty reduction goals | Allocation of village wildlife meat quotas derived from wildlife on village lands; financial support for community development projects |
Summary
With an area of around 45,000 sq.km, representing 5% of Tanzania's land surface, the Selous Game Reserve (SGR) is the largest protected area in Africa. It encompasses a wide variety of wildlife habitats, including open grasslands, acacia and miombo woodlands and riverine forests. The reserve contains some of the largest and most important populations of elephants, buffalos and wild dogs in Africa. About 60% of Tanzania's elephants are found there. With its extensive area of miombo forests, the Selous is one of the largest forest areas under protection.
The processes of population resettlement and expansion of the protected area have shaped the long history of wildlife-human conflict in the villages bordering the SGR. The evolution of the SGR was also accompanied by the enactment of increasingly restrictive legislation regulating access to wildlife, which culminated in the passing of the 1974 Wildlife Conservation Act prohibiting human settlement in game reserves and limiting all hunting of wildlife to that licensed by the wildlife authority. In rural areas farming of food and cash crops is a major occupation for the majority of the villages, however the yields barely suffice their requirement. Specifically meat protein is in high demand because livestock keeping in the ecosystem of SGR is hardly possible due to Tsetse flies and is not a tradition. Therefore the villagers are dependent on game meat, even if it means breaking the law. Since the colonial time villagers had no legal access to game meat because they could not comply with the legal hunting regulations. In addition villagers living in areas bordering the reserve did not benefit from its resources but instead faced infrastructural disadvantages, suffered from crop damages and dangerous wild animals causing threats to human life. This applies to all protected areas in Tanzania. This led to antagonism towards the reserve and conflict between wildlife authorities and villagers and led to villagers poaching or tolerating poaching. The consequence of this was that commercial poaching increased in the 1980’s to a magnitude that endangered the further existence of the reserve. The elephant population had been reduced from more than initial 100.000 to below 30.000. The black rhinos almost became extinct.
In 1988, in response to wildlife losses, the Selous Conservation Programme (SCP) was started. The plan aimed to secure better definition of boundaries, imposition of controls over poaching, logging and wildfires, and sustainable use of the wild resources. Most useful of all, to reduce the levels of poaching within the Reserve, and to create a buffer zone between it and the villages, communal wildlife management (CWM) schemes were established in wildlife management areas adjacent to 41 villages as part of a conservation program. By these, villagers agree to allow wildlife onto part of their lands in return for a sustainable hunting quota. These have been accompanied by self-help and rural development schemes to improve village services. As part of this program, the Reserve authorities retain 50% of the money made from tourist hunting to finance management.
Conservation impact
When the SCP was started in 1988, poaching in the SGR, particularly for elephant and rhino, had reached disastrous levels. By 1991, elephant poaching in SGR had been virutally halted. The 1991 and 1994 animal census for the SGR showed an increase in some species, including elephants. The SCP, in particular access to quota meat, also had a significant positive influence on villagers' perceptions of the benefits of conserving wildlife.
Poverty reduction impact
The Selous Conservation Programme supplied game meat to the villagers, assistance for village development projects, and helped with the protection and management of wildlife on village lands. More specifically, the villages derive revenues from the sale of meat from their quota, and SCP provides training on the administration of these funds. Thanks to this programme, much Reserve infrastructure has already been improved.
Strategy for Conservation/Poverty Linkages
Provision of basic goods/services
Enabling local participation in policy-/decision- making processes
Reference 1
Gillingham, S. and Lee, P.C., 1999, 'The Impact of Wildlife-Related Benefits on the Conservation Attitudes of Local People around the Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania', Environmental Conservation 26(3): 218-28
Reference 2
Songorwa, A., 1999, 'Community-Based Wildlife (CBW) Management in Tanzania: Are the Communities Interested?' ,World Development 27(12): 2061-79
More information
http://wildlife-programme.gtz.de/wildlife/scp.html
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/index.html?http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/selous.html~main
http://srdis.ciesin.columbia.edu/cases/tanzania-015.html
Related records above this one:
- Government of Tanzania (Organisation O0030)
- African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) (Organisation O0002)
- WWF International (Organisation O0115)