In 1951, the then colonial authority in Tanganyika gazetted an area approximately 3,276 square kilometres in north-eastern Tanzania called the Mkomazi Game Reserve (MGR). Despite its gazetted status, many pastoralists were allowed to exploit pastures and other range resources from MGR. Some twenty years later, a study commissioned by the Government of Tanzania found MGR to be in a degraded state for which the huge influx of pastoralists and game poachers were blamed. This study recommended among other things that pastoralists within MGR be evicted to allow its ecosystem to recover. The Government of Tanzania forcibly evicted these pastoralists from the reserve and allocated a substitute area for them in Handeni district, Tanga region. Very few pastoralists relocated to this new area. Instead, the majority settled in villages surrounding the MGR where the local communities are basically cultivators thus creating a potential scenario for fresh conflicts between them and the local communities as well as the MGR itself. These new conflicts and their impact in terms of the socio-economic-cultural consequences to the pastoralists, MGR and the communities around which they settled had never been adequately studied.
This project therefore had four objectives
- study the new conflicts emanating from those evictions and their impact on the communities around MGR;
- assess adequacy and potential of current policy, legal and operational strategies of MGR in managing the new conflicts;
- study existence and potential role of traditional institutions within the MGR communities which could be utilised for management of such conflicts and;
- identify key areas for which policy review and improvement could be necessary as a tool for conflict management or reduction.
The project arose from the realisation that since there are many protected areas in Tanzania with village communities around them, it is essential that lessons from MGR could be availed to either the communities living in/adjacent to protected areas. This could help either community adjust their lifestyles to match with present realities or help policy makers work out policy and legislative solutions for similar situations for countrywide benefits.
