In Mbungwe Division, Babati District in Manyara Region, tourism activities seem to be flourishing and benefiting the people living in those areas.
Babati District has various tourist attractions including Lake Manyara, Lake Burunge, Burunge Wildlife Management Area, landscape of the highlands, works of art ‘kazi za sanaa’, Manyara and Tarangire national park.
Residents of rural areas in Babati do benefit economically and socially from the tourism activities going on in the district, highlighting the Mbungwe division in which there is the Burunge wildlife management area.
The wildlife management area has various types of animals and was created after putting together ten villages that dedicated their land to form wildlife management area that will be preserved to boost sustainable tourism.
The Office of the Burunge Wildlife management Area (WMA) in the Mbungwe division has improved the management of the sanctuary to ensure that the villagers who have dedicated their areas benefit economically from tourism activities in the Babati district.
Hamisi Ng’imba, a chairman of the Burunge Wildlife management Area from Mbungwe Division from Babati Rural explains that the establishment of the Burunge Wildlife Management has been successful after the creation of the wildlife policy in 1998 with the aim of preserving the environment and alleviate poverty for the people of the respective areas.
However, the community seems to be productive in steering development for the respective villages, Ng’imba explains residents from the 10 villages are engaged in economic activities interconnected with tourism, agriculture and business in Babati.
Chairman Ng’imba adds that Burunge Wildlife management Area (WMA) plays pivotal role in bringing development to the people of Mbungwe and every year WMA allocates funds to each individual village from collections they get from tourists.
For example, for the year 2022/2023 approximately 100 million shillings was allocated for each village and the citizens of respective areas decide on how to use the funds by proposing types of development projects to be implemented such as the construction of clinics, dispensaries, classrooms, water projects, roads projects or teachers’ houses.
WOMEN ENGAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION SKILLS
The opportunities arising from sustainable tourism in Babati Rural have not left woman behind. Elizabeth Simba, a resident of the village known as Three Hills in Babati District, testifies the way in which she benefits economically from the presence of tourism activities in her community.
She says that she, as a beneficiary of tourism activities in her village from Vilima Kituta, has received entrepreneurial skills from the Chemchem company, which is responsible to develop and preserve the community’s environment.
“What has helped me is the education that I have received from Chemchem’s scholarship. I have surely benefited. I have been able to know many things that I was not aware of, until now I am here because I have learned and understood what I learnt” said Elizabeth Simba
She also added that apart from those directly visible benefits from the Chemchem Company of providing employment opportunities and the construction of classrooms , the people of Vilima Vitatu village are involved in proposing projects to be implemented due to the allocation of funds from the Wildlife Management Area (WMA).
In terms of achievements of women’s groups, the groups of women and young people are trained, whereby six groups of women have been trained and given capital of approximately 12 million each group to start small-scaled business. Furthermore the groups have progressed further to develop skills of saving money, organising traditional dance groups, weave mats and traditional clothing which are popular products for tourists.
Mary George, a resident of Buruge, says that among other things, she has learned about sustainable tourism as great emphasis was placed on protecting animals from poaching
“We have been taught that when you see an animal, don’t see it as meat, see it as dollar,” said Mary
Mary says the presence of the Burunge reserve community has helped her get the raw materials for making baskets and mats for her business.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY
Along with other things, tourism has opened doors for foreign and local to invest and offer employment to the locals. For example the Burunge wildlife management has commissioned a company known as Chemchem which is owned by foreigner.
Chemchem is one of the companies that have invested in the Burunge wildlife sanctuary and provide economic opportunities to many citizens of Burunge and the surrounding areas as they has successfully employed more than two hundred workers including citizens from Babati Rural.
The Chemchem company has projects that have been implemented in the villages, some of the projects are the construction of a school at Vilima Vitatu, distribution of textbooks in schools, construction of water projects, provision of entrepreneurship skills, English language training for citizens and sports by organizing the Chemchem league cup held every year in August.
Public Relations Officer of Chemchem company, Charles Sylvester, says that all the ten villages participate in various events that are organized by the company, where those events aim to provide education on environmental conservation and self-employment skills as well as open opportunities for employments in the community.
“Along with Chemchem, we also have our own NGO’S organization called Chemchem associations which we work in Tarangire and Manyara ecosystem and this organization has two main goals and the first one is to support the community and the second goal is environmental conservation’’ Said Charles
Alfred Beno is one of the youth that had benefited from the tourist activities in Manyara region, through the investment of the Chemchem company he had a scholarship opportunity and exceled his career in serving tourists and enventually got a job in the company.
“I have personally benefited from this tourism because I came here and got a job. I started as a guest room attendant, but later they saw that I had little skills, so they gave me a little education and now I am a tourist attendant at the front reception” Alfred said.
PROTECTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES TAWA AND WMA
The Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) in the Manyara region continues to manage wildlife resources outside the national reserve , the authority collaborates closely with the community of wildlife reserves in the region including Burunge.
Senior Conservation Officer Aleningwa Swai from the Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) has explained that one of the conservation activities they cooperate with, is the control of wildlife resources by patrolling using village guards from the ten villages that make up the conservation community of Burunge after being provided with capacity building to call for training of how to arrest and opening proceedings and cases.
“We cooperate with this community in various conservation activities, including the control of wildlife resources by patrolling, so the village guards that make up the Burunge Wildlife Management Area from the ten villages are always building their capacity by giving them training that can help them in the environmental conservation skills against poachers” Aleningwa has said
As a result of efforts to educate the people of the respective areas on the issue of wildlife conservation, the community has benefited from sustainable tourism as natural resources are safe and tourism activities continue to flourish annually in Babati Rural and Manyara region at large. Citizens of different groups, especially women, are among the biggest beneficiaries of sustainable tourism in Manyara.
