Community Based Wildlife Conservation Areas
Currently, the number of Community Based Wildlife Conservation Area(CBWCA)has been increasing in the Region. Almost all the Zones and Special Woredas of the Region have identified sites, which are rich in wildlife resources and are requesting support to the Regional Government Culture and Tourism Bureau TPDUP to establish the sites as a CBWCA or other protected area category (National Parks or Controlled Hunting Areas). Accordingly, three sites had demarcated and became CBWCA in the last two years. These include GibeShelko-CBWCA in Gurage and Garamba Mountain Conservation area in Sidama zone and Tama Wildlife Reserve (known as Wildlife Reserve and it is under process to convert it to the CBWCA) in Debub Omo Zone. There are also a number of proposed wildlife sites in each Zones of the Region, which are waiting the required preliminary survey (to determine the wildlife potential) and the subsequent community dialogue and boundary demarcation..
A CBWCA is in effect a protected area with legal status/protection, which exists on land owned by a community. On one extreme, the land is managed exactly the same as any protected area, on the other extreme, people may remain living and farming the area, but do so in an environmentally-friendly and sustainable manner. Between these two extremes are a host of possibilities and options.
A key aspect is that the land belongs to the community, they decide what is allowed and what not, and they accrue and distribute the benefits derived from the CBCA.
The communities need to decide to use part of their communal land as a community conservation area. They decide which part of their land will be used for the purpose wildlife conservation & development and make some local rules (by-laws), for example, within this area there will be no settling, no livestock grazing, no agriculture, no hunting and no wood collection or live tree cutting. However, in this area the harvesting of medicinal plants, beekeeping etc will be allowed.
Such communities’ measures would help for the improvement of wildlife situations in the reserve i.e the revival of the vegetations and flourishing of wild animals (mammals, birds etc). Form the CBCA, the community can start generating income by providing different services for visitors including, guiding, developing tourist rest-camp, traditional food and coffee preparation, selling different handicraft products, showing their cultural music and dance and other social practices. The tourists are also charged a fee to stay in the rest-camp and the community keeps and distributes the income.
As the Wildlife Conservation Area owned by the community it can be properly protected and developed their by the numbers of wildlife increases, and then it becomes necessary for the community to reduce and control their number. The community can decide together with Government body (the region wildlife department) to set some quota to cull some hunt able wild animals from the reserve for sport hunter and there by the community can get an opportunity to gain additional benefit thereof (from sport hunting). |
