Mbarang’andu

Today we were in and around Mbarang’andu Wildlife Management Area on a mission to find out about recent issues causing conflict between agricultural communities and livestock herders. There is a perception that the pastoralists have illegally ‘invaded’ these traditional farming and forest areas, driving wildlife away and destroying farmers’ livelihoods. In fact if someone registers with the village authorities and understates the number of cattle they intend to raise, or is a long-term resident who then invests in cattle, no one is doing anything against the rules, despite the ensuing environmental issues. The vilification of perceived ‘invaders’ feels very familiar to the UK political context. Let there never be a chance missed to pit one group against each other whilst the real villains of the piece divert attention from their own wrongdoings and shortcomings. In the UK context the abject failure of government to allocate resources fairly and in the Tanzania context the political corruption in the livestock industry which is leading to overstocking and environmental destruction, because beef is lucrative, and to hell with the conflicts it creates at community level.

We met with people in Kitanda village, who explained how the village land is zoned into areas set aside for farming, others for sustainable timber harvesting (which brings healthy revenues for the community) and another swath for investment by operators, principally for tourism hunting, again to be focused on sustainable offtake if quotas are accurately managed and adhered to. This community is having mixed results but at the least the selling of timber with no net loss of biomass and where cleared areas can regenerate, earned the community around 90 million Tanzanian shillings (around 38,000 US dollars) last year.