LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK TO BE EXPANDED

Tanzania is a country we numerous tourist attraction, more land is devoted to protected areas for tourism and conservation purposes which is a good thing but the respective institutions shuld not forget the reforms to benefit local communities

MARC NKWAME, Babati, 29th November 2009 @ 12:00, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 270

THE emerald and alexandrite mines found at Mayoka village in Babati District, will soon be closed to pave way for the expansion of Lake Manyara National Park.

The Park Warden, Ms Betrita Loibooke, said an official directive from the State House has ordered the mining operations to be halted and miners vacate the precinct, because conservation and mining can never go in sync.

Mr Emmanuel Penko, the spokesperson for other artisan miners at the quarry, said the decision would hurt them because they were in the process of applying for loans to buy better equipment for their operations.

The miners claim that they were never told of the expansion that is why they were still mining; adding that most had valid mining licences which were expired in 2014.

Members of the Parliamentary, Finance and Corporate Affairs Committee who visited the mines, told the miners that the decision to expand the park was taken by the national assembly in November, last year and appeared in the Government gazette number 105 of May, this year.

The committee led by its deputy chairperson, Ms Estherina Kilasi, resolved that the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), should discuss the matter with the miners in order to resolve the issue.


"You must meet and see if there is a possibility of compensation to the affected people, because there is no ultimatum for the quarry owners other
than to vacate the area," Ms Kilasi stated.

The proposed expansion will see Lake Manyara National Park area doubled from the current 330 square kilometres to around 650 square kilometres annexing the emerald and alexendrite mines, the Marang' forest and farms number 1, 2 and 3 in Maji-Moto location and thus, giving the park authority total control of Lake Manyara.

Previously, only half of the lake basin was under conservation. However, according to Ms Loibooke, the corresponding Mayoka village will not be affected by the expansion.

Lake Manyara is the only place in the world where tree climbing lions can be sited. It handles an average of 160,000 tourists every year.

The park lying within the Rift Valley in the endless Maasai Steppes, is home to large buffalo, wildebeest and Zebra herds as well as giraffes, Manyara's legendary tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants.

It is also an eco-system of banded mongoose, diminutive kirk's dik-dik forages.

Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania's birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day.

Highlights include thousands of pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other large water birds such as pelicans, cormorants
and storks.