Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"
Community based management of natural resources in Tanzania - Village surveys
by Catherine Brüschweiler
The study is conducted in the South West part of Tanzania, in the Inyonga area. This region is part of a vast ecosystem characterised by the quality of its natural habitats due to the low population density. Inyonga area is covered by immense forests of exceptional riches and is also noteworthy as being one of the last large surviving areas of unspoilt and virgin land in Africa. In spite of the lack of major protection, the range of animals present in this zone is most impressive.
Flora and fauna represent the natural resources which are the basis for the local economy.
Nevertheless, one actually sees a destruction of the natural resources due to the poverty of the population and through the lack of alternatives. Too often the farmers have no other choice than to turn to commercial poaching and the intensive culture of tobacco.
Then forests are cut down to grow tobacco which consequently deprives animals of their habitat. Furthermore, the cultivation of tobacco rapidly exhausts the soil meaning that more forest must be cut down. Seen over the long term, tobacco plantations threaten the survival of this area and of the population.
If no alternative can be found and the exploitation of the region’s resources continues in the current manner, this will inevitably lead to the desertification of the area and the exodus of its inhabitants.
Wild honey from the forests of Inyonga offers an ideal alternative. In Tanzania’s Inyonga region, bee-keeping is already a traditional activity and the honey is famous throughout the country. This activity has great interest from the point of view of natural conservation of the eco-system as well as having a potential impact on the local economy.
The efforts of the program aim at improving the quality of the honey in order to make a product worthy of exportation. Only high quality would generate revenue superior to that of the tobacco culture.
The Tanzanian government, aware of the dangers as well as of the potential of this problem, has very recently developed an innovative policy with regard to bee-keeping which tries to provide solutions by the introduction of the concept of “Bee Reserve”. This new concept embodies the conclusions recently reached by the major environmental protection agencies, in that “without the participation of the inhabitants of these areas in the management of their resources, there can be no sustainable conservation of nature.”
To develop the quality of the honey and assure a solid revenue to the local population, it is necessary to make the region of Inyonga into a Bee-Reserve.
On the other hand the shortage of available funds, combined with the difficult access to the Inyonga region, has meant that it has been extremely difficult to create institutional conditions at a local level in order to set up this Bee-Reserve, even though there is sufficient enthusiasm and potential to make the scheme work.
ADAP (Association for the Development of Protected Areas), a Swiss NGO active in the management of natural resources, has proposed its support in order to set up the social and institutional conditions for the development of the enormous potential of bee-keeping. In this way, by supporting the production of honey, the required conditions and resources will be created to involve the local population in the management and development of the flora and fauna in their own region. The revenues generated by such activities guarantee the sustainability of the undertaken activities.
The initial phase of the project will be carried out by a student in the framework of a five month study program for a postgraduate diploma DESS (Diploma of Specialised Higher Studies) in “Sustainable Development1 of high constraints area” under the supervision of University Institutions such as the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva, the University of Dar-es-Salaam and the Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources.
Through this professional practical training, surveys of the local population would be achieved to gather all of the information necessary to prepare the ground for the realisation of a Bee-Reserve and to identify the obstacles to its durable management.
1 Sustainable Development: Development which meets simultaneously social, environmental and economical requirements.
Prof. Chachage
Associate Dean
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
University of Dar-es-Salaam
P.O Box 35091
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Tel: 2410500/8 Ext.2294
Fax : 2410395
E-mail : chachage@udsm.ac.tz
Prof. Ronald Jaubert
The Graduate Institute of Development Studies
24 rue Rothschild
Case postale 136
1211 Geneva 21
Switzerland
Tel : ++41-22-906 59 62
E-mail : RonJaubert@aol.com
Mr. Yves Hausser
ADAP
15 rue des Savoises
1205 Geneva
Switzerland
++41-22-320 76 75
E-mail : info@adap.ch