Paper short abstract:

Based on a mixed methods study of community perspectives towards Randilen Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in northern Tanzania, this paper suggests that WMAs can show promise as mechanisms for reducing rangeland fragmentation and supporting people, livestock and wildlife.

Paper long abstract:

Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are a particular conservation strategy in Tanzania. WMAs aim to balance wildlife conservation with community livelihoods through the implementation of land use plans at the village level that restrict some human activities while allowing others. They also enable the central government to extract revenue from conservation tourism that occurs on village land. The creation of WMAs can lead to tensions among local communities, private investors, and government authorities as a consequence of competing interests within and across these stakeholder groups. On these grounds, WMAs have been criticized by social scientists, particularly in such instances where the resource rights of rural communities are marginalized. Few case studies to date, however, have employed representative sampling procedures and quantitative methods to assess community perspectives towards WMAs. This paper presents results from a proportionately weighted and randomly sampled survey of community attitudes towards Randilen WMA in the Monduli District of northern Tanzania. The results speak to high levels of community support for Randilen WMA, and highlight people’s lived experiences of inclusion in conservation governance and management. Drawing from these findings, this paper forwards an alternative anthropological perspective on WMAs, suggesting that they can show promise as mechanisms for reducing rangeland fragmentation and supporting people, livestock and wildlife.