Context: Northern Tanzania?s savannahs and grasslands are occupied primarily by Maasai pastoralists, as well as globally significant semi-migratory wildlife populations, which co-exist with people and livestock in pastoralist-managed landscapes. As a standard practice, pastoralists in this region zone their extensive lands into seasonal grazing reserves. They earmark areas for use in wet season and dry season. These areas are restricted from human use for much of the year (up to 10 months annually in the case of dry season reserves). CCA harbour a great deal of biodiversity and wildlife within pastoral landscapes. The existence of these grazing reserves, which often cover up to 60% of a given community?s land area, is a central factor in the persistence of significant wildlife populations outside state protected areas throughout northern Tanzania.

Of late, CCAs have come under increased pressure mainly from investors. The CCAs remain vulnerable because of lack of security in land tenure and insufficient capacity by local village authorities to formally, plan resource use patterns and developing relevant enforcement mechanism. This project aims at addressing identified threats to CCAs by building local management capacity for sustainable and legal protection of seasonal grazing reserves.

About the Proponent: UCRT is an NGO that was established in 1998 and registered in 2002. Its main focus is to help local communities formalize their traditional natural resource management practice through land use plans and village bylaws. In recognition of its long term contributions to integrating rural livelihoods with natural resource conservation in northern Tanzania, UCRT was a finalist for the Equator Initiative Prize awarded at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008.

Project objective: To promote Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) through improved land use planning in the three villages of Laiborsirret and Kimotorok (Simanjiro) and Makame (Kiteto)

Project Implementation Strategy:

1. Develop through participatory methodologies land use plans for target villages in the Maasai steppe, which clarify land use zones including grazing reserve CCAs.
2. Facilitate drafting of by-laws for target villages, which establish rules governing resource use at the village level and reinforce traditional resource management practices
3. Support strengthening of village-level resource management bodies such as village natural resource committees for informed natural resource management in the target villages
4. Increase improved awareness of pastoralist conservation practices in the Maasai Steppe through documentation of traditional grazing reserves.