Economic contribution of Pawaga-Idodi and Ngarambe-Tapika wildlife management areas to local communities’ livelihood

The overall objective of this study was to assess the economic contributions of Pawaga-Idodi and Ngarambe-Tapika Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) to community livelihoods in Iringa and Rufiji Districts respectively. Primary data were obtained through household questionnaire survey, focus group discussion, and key informants interviews in four villages in the two WMAs. Secondary data were collected from WMAs documentary reports from district and village office, internet, journals and literature from Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL). A total of 120 households were interviewed. Analysis of data was through Statistical Package for Social Science and Microsoft Excel. The results revealed similar economic opportunities in the two WMAs particularly on hunting tourism, photographic, lodges and campsites. Hunting tourism (62.2%) was reported as the major source of revenue, others were lodges & campsites (22%), donor support (1.8%), photographic (1.8%) and the 25% benefit sharing (8.8%). The results further showed that several economic activities are practiced in the area, where 71% of respondents indicated that farming is the major economic activity that contributes to their household income and (2%) from WMAs activities. This suggests that the role of the WMAs in improving people’s standard of living is still low or unclear. Generally, respondents showed positive perception towards WMAs. Therefore the study recommends that there is a need to improve relationship among investors, local communities and WMA staff, improvement of business contracts, need for investors to follow village rules and regulation, awareness education and empowerment of local communities in running the WMAs.