Training Community Scouts to Protect Wildlife

Manyara Ranch occupies a critical central location in the Kwakuchinja wildlife corridor between Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks in northern Tanzania. As habitat fragmentation and degradation threaten this important wildlife area, AWF is working through the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust and Manyara Ranch to link these core protected areas with corridors of undeveloped land. Training scouts from local communities to manage and protect ranch lands is one way AWF is supporting conservation in this area.

Manyara Ranch has hosted community game scout training for village scouts from Ol Tukai, Esilalei, Minjingu, Makuyuni and Mto wa Mbu villages. The goal of the training is to build the capacity of community members to participate in enforcement activities at the landscape level. This training, combined with donations of vehicles and radios to the ranch, will help protect wildlife from poachers.

Mariam Haji of Kondoa was the first female game scout on the ranch. Scoring the highest across the board in written, oral, practical, and personality testing, Mariam outshone her competitors for the single available game scout position. This dedicated and intelligent woman received previous natural resource sector law enforcement training during a year at the Pasiansi Training Institute in Mwanza.

The training course for community game scouts was conducted by a law enforcement officer from Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. The training course included instruction in ethics and law enforcement, interview and interrogation, arrest procedures, crime scene investigation, and other topics critical to successful enforcement on ranch lands.

The scouts conduct surveillance of the ranch on a routine basis and have been able to keep poachers off the land. They record data of any event and systematically collect biological monitoring data. The ranch has an abundant variety of animals similar to the national parks, which has attracted investors interested in tourism business. This will contribute to ranch incomes as well as to the communities'.

Training was also given to five units of village game scouts in key wildlife corridors and dispersal areas in the Simanjiro Plains, Yaeda-Chini Valley, and the wildlife management areas of Burunge, Enduimet and Kiteto. AWF is committed to making these units strong against poachers to protect the remaining wildlife habitats in the Maasai Steppe Heartland.