Tanzania establishes commission to resolve human-wildlife conflicts

Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 21:06:22|Editor: Zhou Xin
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ARUSHA, Tanzania, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania has come up with a national land use planning commission to resolve the escalating human-wildlife conflicts, particularly for communities living close to the country's national parks.

"We believe that the ongoing human-wildlife conflicts will be resolved after the formation of the commission," said Alan Kijazi, Director General of Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) when revealing the new development on Thursday,

Kijazi said that the commission will be officially launched next week in the east African nation, which in total has 16 parks.

He explained that the human-wildlife conflict is contributed by a number of factors including climate change, whereby wildlife have been getting out of the conservancies into people's homes in search of water and sometimes food.

"There are people who have been encroaching wildlife corridors for farming, grazing and settlement, which in turn those areas fall prey of wildlife invasion. In some areas wild animals kill human beings and in some areas, pastoralists do kill wild animals such as lion, that killed livestock," the official said, stating: "This commission will help to address the challenge."

For the last three years, it is estimated that 80,000 livestock gets into the parks annually, according to him.

Kijazi said that the wildlife watchdog has been drilling dams in the parks, which are highly affected by climate change. "We believe that this will help to reduce wild animals from getting out the parks looking for water."

TANAPA, according to Kijazi, is set come up with a sustainable financial strategy aimed at making it deliver competitive services to tourists.

So far, TANAPA relies on only five parks- Serengeti, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Arusha, Mkomazi when it comes to annual revenue collections. Tanzania has a total of 16 national parks, all managed by the country's wildlife watchdog.

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