Wildlife Management in Tanzania: Recentralization, Rent Seeking, and Resistance
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Date
2012
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Abstract
Wildlife management in Tanzania is currently undergoing a process of recentralization.
While the Wildlife Policy of 1998 opened up for community participation and local
benefits, the Wildlife Policy of 2007 and the Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 re-focus
on central government control of income from both sport hunting and safari tourism. The
wildlife sector in Tanzania is marked by little transparency and accountability and with
considerable rent-seeking behavior. In fact, the hunting business is generally considered
one of the most corrupt sectors in a country with increasing public attention on
corruption. Recentralization and rent-seeking are not, however, occurring without
resistance from communities. Some villages have resisted being part of ‘Wildlife
Management Areas’, which are promoted jointly by the State and international
conservation groups as being ‘community-based’. Central to this opposition is the
recentralization of revenues from safari tourism that previously came directly to villages.
In discussing these issues, we draw on careful readings of new legislation as well as in
depth studies of wildlife management practices at three locations in northern Tanzania.
Description
Keywords
Wildlife Management, Recentralization, Rent Seeking, and Resistance, Tanzania
Citation
Benjaminsen, T.A., Goldman, M.J., Minwary, M.Y. and Maganga, F.P., 2012. Wildlife Management in Tanzania: Recentralization, Rent Seeking, and Resistance. Geoforum.