Wildlife utilization and livelihoods in Enduimet wildlife management area, Longido district, Tanzania

Community based conservation (CBC) represents a significant potential opportunity for rural people to diversify their livelihood portfolios. However, CBC in Tanzania as elsewhere, has been criticized as generally designed with a view to securing conservation gains rather than maximizing benefits and devolving decision –making powers to rural communities. This has led to plenty of disagreement on whether or not the CBC option is economically viable in terms of livelihoods diversification and devolution of power and authority of wildlife management from central government to local communities. The study employed the political ecology approach to examine the way local communities of enduimet have been involved in decision making in relation in wildlife utilization in CBC programme; investigate the competing interest of actors and; assess the implication of wildlife utilization for local livelihood in Enduimet wildlife management Area [EWMA].A combination of qualitative and quantitative research paradigms were imployed where direct observation, key informant interview, Focus Group Discussion [FGD],documentary review and questionnaire were used .Data were collected from a sample of 143 out of 1787 households, randomly selected in four village with a sampling intensity of 8%.The findings have revealed that, despite a considerable part of the income going into individuals pockets, there were significant benefits realized by villagers from photographic tourism investors. The benefits included improvement of social services such as classroom and health facilities. Although 69.2% of the respondents reported being excluded from the decision – making process resulting in conflicts, the majority (74%) had a positive perception of the CBC programme. They still hope that things might be rectified and in the long run they would derive more benefits from their natural resources as expected. The study recommends that all impediments, including lack of community involvement, corruption and inadequate awareness of WMM, should be addressed immediately by the responsible ministry in collaboration with the community members. The DW should work together with the respective conservation NGOs, the District council and representatives from villages forming WEMA in planning of the benefit sharing scheme which will satisfy local people’s needs and expectation for the purpose of sustainability of wildlife, tourism people’s livelihoods and economic gains to the country.