Safarilands.org
Ngorongoro Authority Takes Action to Save Ecosystem
URL: https://www.safarilands.org/index.php/environment/more/ngorongoro_authority_takes_action_to_save_ecosystem/
Posted: Tuesday June 30, 2009 5:25 AM BT
Posted: Tuesday June 30, 2009 5:25 AM BT
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority will be buying salt consignment and distribute it free-of-charge to the pastoralists living in the locality.
Apparently, the Maasai cattle keepers had argued that the vegetation on the vast crater basin was tastier and healthier for their livestock because of the soil salinity. The animals in the vicinity according to the area residents were used to the salty grass and shrubs in addition to drinking from the saline lakes in the crater.How the distribution will be executed remains in the book, but the people living within the NCAA whether they own cows or not, will never go without salt in their food again.
Recently the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization warned that due to human activities causing havoc in the NCAA the area could be 'removed' from the list of world heritage sites. Among the activities include overgrazing and increasing cultivation.
UNESCO's latest exclusive report of the 'Reactive Monitoring Mission' indicates that the popular tourist site, said to be cradle for mankind suffers from real estate development and ever increasing farms not to mention escalating number of livestock within the crater.
The international body opposes cultivation activities within the NCA, traffic congestion into the crater at the rate of 300 vehicles per day on average, proposed major hotel constructions around the crater rim and mass tourism policy. Last year Ngorongoro received 425,000 visitors, previously the number averaged at 350,000 per annum. Experts believe this is unhealthy for the site ecology.
"The anticipated growth in tourism to Tanzania and conservation area in particular poses significant challenges for NCAA" reads part of the UNESCO report, suggesting that it was important to be ahead of the curve and to develop a tourism strategy that will enable the NCAA to proactively manage tourism.
UNESCO considers that key elements of this strategy should include a focus on encouraging quality rather than mass tourism, major development and infrastructures associated with tourism outside the conservation area.
The UN body is very much concerned with erosion associated with cattle access into the crater, demanding NCAA in close collaboration with the Maasai people and the local Pastoralists' Council to explore alternatives to limit or stop livestock grazing in the crater.
"Although the properties are not in danger, within the context of the World Heritage operation Guidelines, they are certainly facing significant threats," UNESCO's report reads.
The NCAA is currently making all means necessary to rescue the site from losing such an important designation including barring cattle from grazing in the caldera by offering commercial salt alternative to the keepers.
Meanwhile also some 190 households with some 550 people, who immigrated into NCA after 1975, have been relocated to Oldonyo-Sambu where his authority has bought land. "There are still ample plots for other Ngorongoro residents who want to carry on with cultivation after we ban farmimg here," revealed Mr. Murunya.
Plans are also underway to relocate the NCAA staff from within the conservation area to Kamyn Estate, nearly 5km from Laodore Gate, within an area of 435 acres where residential flats have been constructed.
The NCA has a human population of over 64, 842 more than twice the required number of 25,000 people that the eco-system can support. There are also 13, 6550, herds of cattle and 19, 3056 goats and sheep. The animals have already been banned from descending into the crater.
The NCA is home to the vastly-wide Ngorongoro crater, the lush-steeped Embakai Crater, Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli archaeological sites, Montane forests and several crater lakes. The crater is home to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25,000 animals living in the caldera.
Matengoe Ole Tawo an elder in the area say that during their early days there were plenty of wild animals, but surprisingly when the modern conservation initiative began and animals started decreasing. He advised that modern conservationists should borrow a leaf from the indigenous ones.
The chairman for Parliamentary committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment, Job Ndugai said they were taking stock of the problem confronting the NCA and will advise the government on how best can rescue the site from falling from the grace.
Copyright © 2005, Safarilands.org