President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, recently approved a proposal to upgrade five game reserves into national parks with the aim of increasing tourism to the country.
During the National Assembly, which took place on May 22, Dr Hamisi Kigwangalla, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism broke the news while winding up the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2018/2019 fiscal year.
The game reserves to be upgraded include Burigi, Biharamuro, Kibiso, Ibanda and Chief Rumanyika.
Hans Gerrizen, Founder and CEO of Siyabona Africa, a DMC with operations in Burigi commented: "Siyabona Africa’s stance on concessions falling within the vicinity of Burigi being upgraded from game reserves to national parks is that, provided that this is on a public/private partnership basis, this stands to unlock economic benefits for local communities as such partnerships benefit collectively not least the rural communities, nature reserves, private operators, and developers.”
According to Gerrizen, this is not a new concept, as commercialisation of this nature opens the door for further private sector investment. However, he says that skills development and capital should reside within local communities, such that local communities are granted equity shares in local safari lodge-based businesses.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai advised the ministry to consider legislators’ concerns over the setting up of new beacons, such as the national parks. A number of lawmakers proposed the suspension of the exercise pending consensus of all parties involved.
Ndugai said if the Tanzania National Parks Authority continued with the demarcation of the new borders by putting beacons in areas already occupied by communities, it would cause difficulty, as the fixing of new beacons had been a source of conflict, especially in game reserves, creating tension between residents and government officials.
“We live in a time when one reads about the high number of local communities that are forcibly removed from their land in order to accommodate the formation of game reserves,” says Gerrizen, adding: “The time is ripe for communities to enjoy ownership rights in the fullest sense, both economically and socially. The profit-sharing model is the only sustainable way to go. It is the forward-looking and enterprising private partners that increasingly look to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with rural communities as part of their core social responsibility to the communities in which they are situated.”
Gerrizen continues: “Without such partnerships, many areas would not receive the conservation face-lift that in many cases is badly needed and local communities would not be recipients to socio-economic upliftment to nearly the same degree.
A further spin-off is the fact that such partnerships serve as incubators for the development of small businesses that service surrounding lodges to the point of becoming commercially viable entities in their own right. Lodges then depend less on the services of suppliers from the urban centres.”
Kigwangalla went on to say: “The President’s approval is timely as the ministry strives to open up other tourist corridors in the country,” reports The East African.
Kigwangalla told the House that the ministry was taking advantage of Chato Airport in order to open the northeast tourist corridor, suggesting that the ministry had further forwarded additional requests to the Head of State to have more game reserves upgraded. These include Swaga Swaga, Mkungunero, Mhesi, Rungwa, Kibosi, Ugala and Moyowosi.
"We intend to have eight million tourists in the next seven years to meet our target of collecting US$16 billion by 2025 ... we have therefore to open new tourism sites." He highlighted the fact that the northern corridor was exhausted with the number of tourists in the region, thus making the maintenance of roads challenging. According to Kigwangalla, funds are spent on road maintenance every month, while there are other tourist attractions with similar wildlife, however remain idle.
