When wild animals, mostly elephants invade people’s homes and farms they end up causing damages to properties and crops. At times, the big animals are killed by angry citizens.
These incidences have been increasing annually with the situation attributed to blockage of wildlife corridors, inadequate land-use planning, livestock intrusion into protected areas, climate change, disregard for advice given by experts on how to avoid HWC effects as well as existence of false beliefs in some societies.
Current statistics from the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) shows that incidences of HWC have been increasing at annual average of 23.76 percent while crop damage increases at an annual average of 118.1 percent.
According to Isaac Chamba, TAWA Conservation Officer, the confrontations between humans and wildlife are historical; adding the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has been dealing with the challenge through its Wildlife Department before the authority was established in 2016.
“There was an increase in human-wildlife conflicts incidents in 2018. Before that time, the problem was small with little impact to the lives and properties of the people. The increase, led the ministry coming up with a National Human-Wildlife Conflict Management Strategy 2020-2024,” said Chamba, noting the strategy that was launched in October 2020 is implemented by TAWA, Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), Tanzania Forest Service Agency (TFS) and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI).
He said in 2016/2017 there were 833 incidents whereas the number increased to 997 in 2017/2018 and 1510 in 2028/2019. He added that in 2019/2020, there were 1426 recorded HWC incidents. The number increased tremendously in 2020/2021 reaching 1706, 2304 incidences in 2021/2022 and 2817 in 2022/2023.
Chamba who was speaking recently at a training organized by the Journalists’ Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) with support from the Mitigation of Human Wildlife Conflicts in Tanzania project that is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), said so far, a total of 44 districts are facing the challenge mentioning them as Busega, Kilosa, Meatu, Nachingwea, Rufiji, Lindi, Manyoni, Itilima, Tunduru and Bunda.
The project which is implemented in the Ruvuma landscape by the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism will cover three districts—Liwale, Tunduru and Namtumbo districts.
Elephants are the leading wild animals in HWC as they contribute to the problem by 80 percent, he said, adding the other remained 20 percent involves wild animals such as lions, hyenas and monkeys.
The TAWA official noted that when the big animals enter into people’s homes, citizens are required to inform wildlife officers instead of killing them since such an act is a legal offence.
“TAWA officers are responsible of taking the animals pack to the park. In between 2017/2018 and 2022/2023, the author successfully moved 60 lions and two hyenas from human settlements. In 2022, we returned 270 elephants back to the forest reserve in Liwale and Nachingwea districts,” he added.
In April last year when addressing the National Assembly, Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Dunstan Kitandula told the August House that the government is working to craft an emergency strategy to address complaints from victims of wild animal attacks.
The current wildlife regulations direct that survivors of wildlife attack should receive 200,000/- in compensation, 500,000/- for victims who have lost body parts and 1m/- for the death, said Kitandula, noting the government does not pay compensation for loss of life or injury caused by dangerous wild animals. It only pays consolation to the victim for the loss of life or injury.
The rate and procedure for payment of consolation for death caused by wildlife is stipulated under section 69 to 71 of the Wildlife Conservation Act, 2009 and the Wildlife Conservation (Dangerous Animals Damage Consolation) Regulations, 2011.
Application of the regulations took effect in 2012 whereas between 2012/2023 and 2022/2023, a total of 11.3bn/- has been paid to people who sustained injuries or died from wild animal attacks or incurred losses caused by straying destructive wild animals.
Expert opinions
John Noronha, HWC Expert said that in planning and implementing any human-wildlife conflict mitigation initiative, one should understand the values, social norms, beliefs, culture, economics, interactions between stakeholders and other social and political factors.
According to Noronha, mitigation and damage reduction interventions must be designed and managed collaboratively whereas officials and project staff need to build rapport with the affected communities and other involved parties, while remaining aware of their own positions.
He added that most of the conflicts involve species that range across highly fragmented habitats and or well beyond protected areas into human-dominated landscapes, noting that mitigating damage by wildlife to promote tolerance by people may provide only a short-term solution.
“It is important that communities living near wildlife are actively engaged in ideas and decisions, supporting, for example, biologists, ecologists and geographers in gaining an understanding of a given species’ movement patterns, resource needs and behaviour. Such kind of planning generates important sectoral collaborations, across sectors—agriculture, forestry, health, environment, transport and energy agencies,” he added.
The expert said that it is possible for humans to live with wild animals, but this requires people to apply protective measures such as building strong fences, cultivating crops that are not eaten by elephants, planting peppers around homes and farms.
He however noted that such protective measures against wildlife cannot be applicable at all places; hence the need to know the exact method to be applied to control damages at each of the specific areas.
Coexistence suggests that at some level and in some form a choice is being made by humans to share landscapes and natural resources with wildlife in sustainable ways. Moving from conflict to coexistence cannot be described as a continuum in which neither conflict nor coexistence is locked at a fixed point along the scale.
“Conflicts are not always negative, and words and language matter. Conflicts bring about change. They can be a positive opportunities leading to dialogue, stimulating action and forcing a potentially bad situation to be resolved or improved,” said Noronha, adding if addressed properly, HWC can force people to look at underlying tensions and inequalities, thus work together for improved well-being, development and conservation.
Media role
Head of Communications Department at Ministry, John Mapepele, said the contribution of journalists in conservation efforts is important taking into considerations that a third of the country is reserved.
JET Executive Director, John Chikomo said they conducted training to equip journalists with the precise knowledge on HWC before they embark of field trips at the three districts. He said journalists will visit 30 villages across the districts whereas they are expected to accurately report to the public.
“Engaging journalists in mitigation of HWC is essential as they can reach a good number of people. Tanzanians need to be educated on the matter as well as informed on how they can protect themselves from the wild animals,” stated Chikomo, adding that similar training will be conducted to journalists in the specific districts.
Anna Kimambo is the Advisor, Mitigation of Human-Wildlife Conflicts from GIZ, she added: “We are engaging journalists because we want the public to be well informed and stop considering the animals as enemies. This will help change people’s attitude against wildlife and ultimately stop attacking them when pass near their homes.”