Findings show that the establishment of national parks in Tanzania has been a top down approach, which has resulted to land dispossession of the surrounding communities.
As a result the dispossessing of communities off their ancestors’ land has relatively led to conflicts of resources between park authorities and the local communities.
Programme Officer Research department with HakiArdhi, Valentine Ngorisa says, several studies indicate that the establishment of national parks and other wildlife protected areas do not follow participatory process during decision making and thus lack legal foundation of future recognition.
For example, he said the existing conflict between communities and Saadani Park authority, is because the park was established without consulting first the communities found there.
Land disputes in Tanzania have become a talk of the day every now and then; but no concerted efforts seem to be taken by the government to address them.
Ngorisa says Saadani Game Reserve (SGR) was established by the government in the 1960s. The reserve became to be one of the unique reserves in Africa simply because it is the only one whereby the bush meets the sea.
However, in 2005 the ministry of natural resources and tourism decided to change the status of SGR into full Saadani National Park.
He said according to their findings the establishment of Saadani National Park became into existence after the Bagamoyo Distric Council had passed a Council’s resolution to upgrade Saadani Game into full National Park. The Park was established after the Government Gazette issued in 2005.
Before the government notice the land dispute was already presented by the Uvinje villagers in the Council’s office, and in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. The Uvinje sub-villagers claimed that the resolution reached by the District Council was illegal as they were not consulted as the law demands.
According to HakiArdhi, endless land conflicts between the park authority and the villagers living in villages within and around the park have been there since the establishment of the Saadani National Park.
The major contributing factor to this conflict is that the park is struggling to evict the villagers from their traditional places on the argument that they are living and conducting economic activities within the park which is against the wildlife conservation laws.
The Uvinje sub-villagers who have been in conflicts with the park authority say that the park authority has several times attempted to evict them on the ground that they had allegedly invaded the park contrary to the wildlife conservation act of 2009.
The Uvinje division chairman, Hussein S. Akida said that the villagers have been resisting eviction process because they are indigenous and legal owners of the land even before the establishment of the Saadani Game reserve (SGR) which was established in 1960s.
He said earlier in 2000, the District Council held a meeting with the Uvinje villagers and submitted a proposed plan indicating the intention of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to upgrade the Saadani Game Reserve to a full Saadani National Park.
“At the end of that meeting both the Uvinje residents and the district authorities resolved that the borders of the park should remain as it was in the game reserve, but surprisingly and without knowledge and consent of the people of Uvinje the park borders were extended beyond Uvinje; and the minutes of different meetings held recorded were in favour of TANAPA,” he explained.
However, the people of Uvinje have consistently held that, the establishment of the park has never had their blessings and their position was never recorded and therefore, the area belongs to them.
“The resolution of the meeting between Uvinje villagers, TANAPA, Wildlife Director (WD), regional, district, division, and ward representatives dated 23/08/2001, only recorded that citizens were shown the importance of transferring their sub-division as it is within the Game reserve…”
They say after the Reserve was established the villagers entered an agreement with SGR authorities each one was required to respect the drawn boundaries of the park and villages, but to their shock after SGR was upgraded into full operational national park, the border conflicts between the two sides have been the order of the day and villagers have suffered miserably from brutal actions by the park wardens, which has led to the violation of the human and land rights.
Some of the brutal actions by the park wardens to the villagers include: loss of properties and prohibition to engage in their day to day social economic activities.
Despite of several meetings held from 2005 to date between the villagers, local and central governments, and their then Member of Parliament, who later became the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, no resolution has been attained to end that land dispute.
Villagers are resisting to vacate their land on the argument that they have ancestral and spiritual attachment with the area and their daily activities such as agriculture and fishing were smoothly conducted in the area without causing an effect to conservation of wild animals and other resources.
The government on the other hand has been issuing letters to villagers telling them to vacate the area claiming that their presence to that area was affecting the interest of conserving the wildlife in the park.
The government further argues that the wildlife Act demands the people to stay outside the national park and that they are not even allowed to practice any socio-economic activities within the park.
Villagers feeling betrayed
The idea of establishing Saadani Game Reserve was initiated by the people of Saadani village and Uvinje sub-village….It was these villagers who by surprise stopped the then wildlife director N.S. Mahinda who was passing through Saadan on his way to Tanga.
They narrated to him about the existence of abundance of wildlife and biodiversity in the area, but if the government will not be serious all will perish as residents have witnessed increasing of poachers from different parts of the area, including the shores of Indian Ocean.
The director promised the community that he would work on their proposal as it concurred with the government’s initiative to protect wildlife. A committee of 16 people was appointed to accompany the director and showed him parts of the Saadani with abundance of wildlife. On the next day the director and representatives from the village and sub-village met and agreed on the border of the game reserve.
The game reserve became operational in 1968 and the borders have been respected all the time. It was after 2000 the idea of a national park came into existence and the Uvinje villagers were called illegal occupants of the land.
As far as the Uvinje situation is concerned it has been recommended that urgent legal, administrative and political intervention to resolve the conflict at hand are needed. However, since the dispute in the area is situated within the broader context of struggles for land rights and secured livelihoods vis-à-vis the search for wildlife conservation, the situation also necessitates long-term strategies to reign in the rise of similar disputes. Both medium and long term strategies can also be adopted.
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