Critical assessment of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs)

In the paper “What’s wrong with the Wildlife Management Area (WMA) model?”, the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) – which includes CELEP – has made a critical assessment of so-called “community-based conservation” that is sold under the banner of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in Tanzania. WMAs promised to vest village governments and local communities with the authority to manage their own land and natural resources and were supposed to lead to biodiversity conservation, economic growth and community prosperity.

The paper points to the large discrepancy between WMA rhetoric and the reality on the ground. It presents key findings from research into the impact of WMAs on pastoralist communities in Tanzania and outlines possible alternatives. It calls for more equitable conservation approaches that respect and support indigenous management practices compatible with biodiversity conservation, without interest-driven international tourism, hunting and “development” actors who commercialise conservation in benign terms.

Posted on 19 August 2023 in CELEP Documents, Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Policy & Power