7/28/2019 Government clarifies on decision to provide huge tracks of land to Loliondo residents

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 THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIAMINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND TOURISM

PRESS RELEASE

Government clarifies on decision to provide huge tracks of land to Loliondo

residents

 Thirty nine (39) years ago in 1974, the Government of Tanzania, through its Ministryof Natural Resources and Tourism and through Government Notice No. 269 and in line withits now world-renowned and acclaimed Conservation Policy and in accordance with thehistorical Policy position that all Land is a National Resource, declared through GovernmentGazette that 4,000 square kilometers in the Loliondo Area in Arusha Region would be re-classified as Loliondo Game Controlled Area for purely wildlife protection.

Effectively, this made Loliondo Game Controlled Area part of the Tanzania’sProtected Area (PA) Network which covers 24 percent of the country’s total land surface.

 This is one of the highest commitments to wildlife protection anywhere in the world and asmentioned above was made consciously for protection of wildlife and for the benefit of allhuman kind.

 Tanzania’s Protected Area Network includes all the 15 National Parks (NP) andNgorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), both of which are set aside specifically for non-consumptive use of wildlife resources, 28 Game Reserves (GRs) and 44 Game ControlledAreas (GCAs) of which Loliondo GCA is one of them.

Game Reserves and Game Controlled Areas are for consumptive utilization of wildlifesuch as sport hunting. However, Section 17 of the Wildlife Conservation Act No. 5 of 2009restricts human activities such as settlements and livestock grazing in these areas.

However, as population has increased and pressures on land have grown greater inrecent years in the surrounding areas, the Government has felt it necessary and recognizedits primary responsibility of providing land for people in this area, most of whom are landlessand whose lives are therefore highly vulnerable.

It was in recognition of this situation and in meeting its primary responsibilities thatthe Government of Tanzania recently made a decision to de-gazette 2,500 squarekilometers of land, out of the gazetted 4,000 square kilometers, to allow local inhabitants of Loliondo area to freely utilize that land for their own community development.

It was also decided that the remaining 1,500 square kilometers of land be retained asGame Controlled Area for continued protection of the wildlife and the environment for thebenefit of the present and future generations of humankind.

 The Government took this decision with the understanding that environmentconservation is as important for eco-system protection as it is for community livelihood andcommunity development.

On 26th of March, this year, therefore, Hon. Khamis Sued Kagasheki, Minister forNatural Resources and Tourism, using powers invested into him under Wildlife ConservationAct No. 5 of 2009, Section 16 (4) announced this Government position partly also as effortby Government to resolve a land use conflict that has existed in Loliondo Game ControlledArea for the past 20 years.

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7/28/2019 Government clarifies on decision to provide huge tracks of land to Loliondo residents

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In his announcement, the Minister made it clear that the Government took thatdecision to provide land to the growing landless population in the area.

In announcing the Government decision, Minister Kagasheki emphasized powersgiven to him by law to review Game Controlled Areas for the purpose of ascertainingcontinuation of control of such areas bearing in mind that the1,500 square kilometresretained by Government are significantly important to the entire Serengeti and Ngorongoro

ecosystem.

Among other reasons, these 1,500 square kilometers are a crucial breeding area forwildlife, a corridor for iconic great migration of wildlife in particular for millions of wildebeestand a critical water catchment area.

It is therefore a gross and indeed a malicious misrepresentation of facts for a sectionof people both in and outside of Loliondo Game Controlled Area to claim that theGovernment of Tanzania was grabbing land from the Loliondo local communities. Who isgrabbing land from whom?

First, these people have been living in the area illegally for many years because thisland was never allocated to them under any Government arrangement. However, for verycompassionate reasons the Government has allowed them to continue living there for allthese years. Second, this land has always remained Government land throughout all thoseyears.

 The conceivable logic here is that the Government of Tanzania has made uniquehistory of land-grabbing from itself to provide for its citizens in this case. This is a verylaudable action and not something for which the Government of Tanzania should take all thebashing which has gone viral on social networks.

What the Government of Tanzania has now done is in fact to provide 62.7 percent of this land of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area to local communities for present and futureuse and out of Government realization of its responsibilities to provide for its citizens. Surely,no Government in world, can be blamed for meeting its responsibilities to such high levels.

[END]

Hon. Khamis KagashekiMINISTER

MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND TOURISM7th April 2013 Email: minister@mnrt.go.tz

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