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Tourism
Ngorongoro crater issue tough
Posted: Wednesday May 06, 2009 1:03 AM BT
Natural Resources and Tourism Ministry Deputy Minister Ezekiel Maige warned locals in the area, especially people coming from the Maasai Community, against farming inside the NCA.
Natural Resources and Tourism Ministry Deputy Minister Ezekiel Maige warned locals in the area, especially people coming from the Maasai Community, against farming inside the NCA.
He admitted:"This is a sensitive jigsaw-puzzle which needs to be approached with a human face to untangle," but quickly added that the government "won't act harshly" to scale down human activities in the NCA, which Unesco declared a "Natural World Heritage Site in 1979. " Maige, who gave the response at the NCA authority offices on Sunday evening here, insisted that the government would not rush into making decisions that would hurt its people inside the tourist attraction. However, he said that subsistence farming won't help the community in the area overcome poverty, but would hasten destruction of the fragile ecology of the NCA. "NCA being a World Heritage site and a major tourist allure, generates revenues amounting to USD 30million annually.Now tell me, can our subsistence farming earn us such amount?" Maige posed a question. He urged the NCAA to use all means necessary in enabling the Maasai community within their controlled area to revolutionise their traditional livestock by embracing artificial Insemination (AI). Maige said AI mode could play an important role in improving livestock worldwide. Through AI system, he noted, the genetic make up of an animal could be changed to improve the quality and quantity of milk and beef production. "Apparently, the pace of NCAA in rendering community development is not meeting the basic demands, prompting hungry Maasai within the area to cultivate in order to keep their lives going," Maige said. He therefore said "it's unfair" to condemn the Maasai community for engaging in illegal farming within the NCA because for them it was a matter of life and death." Speaking at a similar occasion, the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment, Job Ndugai said time was ripe for the Maasai community through their leaders to come up with a strategy that would define their fate in 50 or 100 years to come. "By 2025, it is estimated that the Maasai community population within the NCA will be 135,000 and the land for subsistence farming also will soar up to 50,000 acres.Can you imagine the situation in fifty years?." Ndugai asked. A committee Member, Prof. Raphael Mwalyosi said the NCA pilot multiple land use philosophy is not sustainable, if the current ecological degradation is anything to go by. "If you ask me now whether multiple land use philosophy within the NCA is possible, the answer is impossible," said Prof. Mwalyosi, himself an environmental expert. Special seats lawmaker Magdalena Sakaya, underlined the need for the NCAA to set a limit to the number of people and livestock allowed to live within the area to avoid the dispute in the long run. According to NCAA Chief Conservator, Bernard Murunya, the widespread illegal farming covers nearly one percent of the 8,300-square kilometers of the controlled area. Unesco has raised a 'red flag' against NCA, threatening to remove it from the list of the World Heritage sites, over the ecological deterioration. An upsurge of human activities incompatible with conservation interests within the NCA and its legendary crater located in northern Tanzania is the reason behind the threatened move. According to UNESCO's latest exclusive report of the reactive monitoring mission seen by The Guardian, the popular tourist site in the country seems to have slowly, but surely started losing its old glory. UNESCO is not happy with the farming activities within the NCA, traffic congestion into the crater, proposed major hotel constructions on the rim of the crater and mass tourism policy. Called the eighth wonder of the world, the NCA in northern Tanzania boasts a blend of landscapes, wildlife, people and archaeology that is unsurpassed in Africa. The volcanoes, grasslands, waterfalls and mountain forests are home to an abundance of animals and to the Maasai. Ngorongoro Crater borders the Serengeti National Park to the north and west. |
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