TUESDAY January 7, 2024
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
Beefed up wildlife security is paying off in Nyerere National Park, Mr Davis Mushi, the park’s Acting Chief and Head of Security Department, assured The Tranquility News recently.
The Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) Principal Conservation Officer said organised poaching was a history in and outside the park.
He attributed the feats to concerted efforts of wildlife players who were deploying various interventions to thwart the vice.
Nyerere, Africa’s largest national park with 31,000 square kilometres, now is a haven for wildlife, tourists, investors and conservators themselves and their property, he said.
He admitted, however, that subsistence poaching for stew was still in practice, but was also declining each year.
In 2022/23, for instance, the park registered 270 incidents that saw 468 poachers nabbed. The incidents dropped to 202 the following year when 356 poachers were arrested.
The park also impounded 619 weapons in 2023/24, down from 813 weapons seized the previous year. Barely two locally made rifles being confiscated in 2022/23 and only one in 2023/24, indicates organised crime is under control.
Majority of the impounded weapons were snares used for subsistence poaching, which also declined from 510 in 2022/23 to 407 in 2023/24.
“We have sufficient rangers, rangers’ posts, working gear and other facilities required for security,” Mr Mushi said.
He enumerated some equipment the park received from the resilient natural resources for tourism and growth (REGROW) project as patrol vehicles and vessels.
However, the safe environment so far created has triggered wildlife-human conflicts, as the animals reproduce optimally and attempt to recolonise their former rangeland.
“Wildlife animals are borderless and do not need passport to go elsewhere, the challenge of stray elephants and lions is, as a result, rising, sometimes destroying crops and causing murder,” Mr Mushi said.
TANAPA has jointly with Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority, Tanzania Forest Services Agency, and community wildlife management areas heavily invested in preventing stray animals from causing damage to life and property.
They have mobilised six joint troops to address the challenge of stray animals not only around the park, but rather throughout the Nyerere-Selous-Mikumi ecosystem, lest they harm villagers and their property.
“Protection is a broad issue, we cannot lock ourselves in the park and think we are safe,” said Mr Mushi, explaining that villages surrounding the park were the great guardians of the resources therein.
Village game scouts often drive stray wildlife animals back into the park in collaboration with rangers.
Ordinary villagers always inform the park on suspected poachers, enabling rangers to arrest them, impound trophies and send the accused to relevant organs for the law to take its course.
Nyerere National Park is in the advent of climate change also facing the challenge of herders grazing in the park, as pasture and water are hard to come by outside it.
Besides impounding the livestock and imposing fines on the owners, the management is actually mulling over convincing the court to confiscate livestock belonging to herders who were severally caught grazing in the park to serve as a lesson to defaulters of conservation laws and those of the land at large.
Mr Mushi reminded surrounding communities that the presence of the park led to benefits derived to them through various development projects.
Selous Game Reserve, the World Heritage Site, which was split to form the Nyerere National Park in 2019, had ugliest cases of organised poaching, leading the reserve to lose over 90 per cent of elephants between 1970s and early 2010.
An aerial survey carried out by Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute and reported in 2022 echoed Mr Mushi’s observation, as it shows populations of many species in the ecosystem remained stable, with jumbos increasing from 13,084 in 2013 to 20,006 in 2022.
Tourist arrivals
Park’s Head of tourism docket Themistocles Bitta said a tourist broke record when he visited the Africa’s largest national park.
“We shouldn’t let foreign tourists alone break this record,” stressed Bitta, adding that the park was home to 500 species of birds of different sizes.
Boat Safaris, one of the park’s products, he said, gave a tourist an opportunity for viewing attractions along the banks of the Tanzania’s largest Rufiji River.
Boat Safaris also involve spot fishing that allows a tourist to catch a fish, weigh it, and release it back to the river.
“Moreover, there is a Game Drive Safari and a Bush Walking safari. Escorted by rangers, tourists walk on foot as part of workouts and getting close to nature,” he said.
Bitta said the number of tourists visiting Nyerere National Park had been increasing year in year out, and so were revenues.
Barely 19,600 tourists visited the park in 2020/21, fetching about $1.3 million. The numbers jumped to 29,576 tourists in 2021/22, 54,865 in 2022/23 and 62,209 in 2023/24, generating over $2.3 million, $4.6 million, and $5 million, respectively.
Bitta said his docket had been promoting the national park to local and foreign tourists through festivities, door-to-door campaigns mostly targeting institutions, and social media platforms.
“Basically, the tourists’ response is positive. The nearest target is to attract between 50,000 and 100,000 tourists annually, tourism is all about relaxing, relieving stress, and contributing to conservation endeavours,” he said.
Poor roads infrastructure is, however, inhibiting local tourists from accessing the park in large numbers. Bitta pleaded with the government to construct at tarmac level the 160-kilometre Morogoro-Kisaki-Matambwe Road as well as the 162-kilometre Dar es Salaam-Kisarawe-Mtemere Road.
In the meantime, tourists, who cannot afford air transport, can opt for the Tanzania Zambia Railway, which cuts across the park, for them to alight at Kisaki Station and proceed few kilometres to Matambwe Gate.
The park also boasts having five airstrips which most of the foreign tourists use for accessing it.
“Currently, the park receives more foreign tourists than the local ones, owing to the poor road access,” Bitta notedΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
