Nile Photo Gallery Serengeti National Park

CONSERVATION VALUE Serengeti National Park, with its herds of ungulates and their associated predators, is the last remnant of a Pleistocene large mammal ecosystem in all its complexity. The park, in combination with the contiguous Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Maasai Mara National Park, is sufficiently large to ensure the survival of this savanna ecosystem.

CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT In 1951, the original boundary of the National Park included land to the south and east of the present park and the Ngorongoro Highlands. Pastoralism and cultivation by the Maasi were allowed to continue until 1954 when it was felt that this was incompatible with resource conservation, and the park was divided into the present day Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The National Park was set aside strictly for wildlife conservation and tourism, and human access was restricted (Leader-Williams et al., 1996). The preservationist approach to protected areas management has slowly been changing throughout the 1980s. IUCN has coordinated aconservation and development programme in the Serengeti region, in collaboration with NORAD, the Serengeti Regional Conservation Strategy. Phase II started in 1989 with the development of a Conservation and Development Plan, developed and executed with the involvement of local people. The overall goal is to change the approach of the management and utilization of the Serengeti from the traditional approach which has excluded local communities, to one in which the needs of human development in the region are reconciled with natural resource conservation (SRCS, 1992). It has been recognised that wildlife is an important economic resource for rural communities around the park. It is hoped that creating schemes whereby local communities are given legal rights to manage the wildlife around their villages will prevent the present illegal and unsustainable levels of wildlife poaching from the park. Areas suitable for development as buffer zones to the park have been identified where wildlife can be managed by the local people, and village Wildlife Committees are supervising conservation activities. The Serengeti Regional Conservation Strategy also includes programmes to stabilise land use, and plans to channel more money earned from tourist activities within the park back into the community (Leader-Williams et al., 1996).

The park administration works with the village authorities to resettle encroachers and re-mark the boundary. Grumeti Game Controlled Area has been incorporated in the park as greater control of the area was thought to be necessary.

MANAGEMENT CONSTRAINTS The human population to the west of the park has expanded rapidly over the past 30 years, wildlife and livestock populations have grown, and demand for land is high. Grazing land is becoming scarce as pasture land is converted into cropland. Local people are vulnerable to external development and large scale agricultural schemes which do not benefit local communities. Open land ownership has also resulted in local people over-exploiting common resources (Leader-Williams et al., 1996). Agricultural encroachments have appeared on park boundaries and former subsistence poaching has now become large-scale and commercial. An estimated 200,000 animals are killed annually, resulting in large declines in the numbers of some species. The rise in demand for meat has partly been driven by the growing local population and in-migration as wildlife and fuelwood is depleted elsewhere. The need for bushmeat has also been exacerbated by the relatively low contribution tourism has made to the local economy (Leader-williams et al., 1996). A controversial hunting lease to the Loliondo Game Control Area next to the park was granted to a Brigadier of the Dubai Army. The lease is an exclusive permit for ten years and takes advantage of the migratory patterns of wildlife coming out of the park. Reports received from the first hunting season noted the indiscriminate use of machine guns and the taking of non-game species (IUCN, 1994), and it is feared that the concession has had a severe impact on wildlife in the area (Lamprey, 1995). At one time the Serengeti was not inhabited by elephants, but cultivation and settlement outside the park resulted in change in distribution. The combination of elephant, uncontrolled fires, and subsequent browsing and stunting of regrowth by giraffe has caused a decline in woodlands. There has also been some tree cutting in small areas on the west and north-west boundaries. In 1994 an epidemic of canine distemper virus (CDV) killed 30 % of the Serengeti and Masai Mara lions, and the disappearance of the wild dog population in 1991 may have been accelerated by rabies spread via domestic dogs. Approximately 30,000 domestic dogs live in the area, most of which are not vaccinated, thus creating a large reservoir for diseases (Roelke-Parker et al., 1996; Morell, 1995). Mass vaccinations of domestic dogs for distemper and rabies around the park started in December 1996 to create an infection free buffer zone on the western boundaries of the park (Bristow, 1996).

STAFF A staff of over 180 includes 35 in administration (many of whom trained at the College of African Wildlife Management at Mweka and/or the University of Dar es Salaam), 80 anti-poaching staff, one chief park warden and five park wardens (undated information).

BUDGET 1977: Tanzanian Shs.2,752,100 (approximately equivalent to US$334,000) including grants from external sources. No recent information.

LOCAL ADDRESSES

• Tanzania National Parks Authority, PO Box 3134, Arusha
• Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, P.O. Box 661, Arusha (1993)