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The United Republic of Tanzania

NGORONGORO CONSERVATION AREA AUTHORITY

The United Republic of Tanzania

NGORONGORO CONSERVATION AREA
AUTHORITY

Community Development

Ncaa and the Community

In an effort to promote the interests of the indigenous community living within the NCA, NCAA established a Community Development Department that manages community affairs and ensures that the community has access to social services for their wellbeing.

In this regard, NCAA supports and carries out a variety of community-based development projects, such as the provision of water supply for human and livestock consumption, education, health, food security, livestock development, and general community welfare.

In this regard, NCAA supports and carries out a variety of community-based development projects, such as the provision of water supply for human and livestock consumption, education, health, food security, livestock development, and general community welfare.

Programs and Services

EDUCATION

A Student Scholarship Program was introduced by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) in 1994 with the primary objective of enabling students from low-income families within NCA gain access to education. The program offers assistance to children from pre-primary school through university by freely providing stationery, tuition fees, transport expenses, accommodation costs, and field practical training expenses. In order to support educational services, the NCAA spends roughly TZS 2 billion on sponsorship programs each year. As of the current statistics, more than 12,000 students have so far benefited from this program.

The Scholarship program which was primarily initiated by the NCAA is currently managed by the Ngorongoro District Council (NDC), while NCAA continues to play its role in providing NDC with direct financial support as needed on a budget basis. The NDC is now in charge of the scholarship’s operational activities such as undertaking administrative logistics with schools, colleges and universities.Ts

WATER SERVICES

The NCA’s community and their livestock access to water service is another NCAA’s responsibility. In order to identify prospective water sources, the responsible department collaborates with NCAA’s Engineering Services Department to conduct geophysical surveys. To a significant extent, the NCAA has successfully carried out its water supply projects. 

Water sources now available in the NCA include boreholes, shallow wells, charcoal earth dams and pipeline water. In addition to being developed and distributed in public areas where community members can have access, water infrastructures have also been extended to include institutions like hospitals, dispensaries, and schools.

FOOD SECURITY

Due to the conservation regulations established for the protection of the natural makeup of the NCA, the community within the area is prohibited from engaging in agricultural activities within NCA.  Taking into account the need to balance between environmental preservation and the demand for food supply for the community living inside the area, the NCAA is obligated to provide food for the community especially the underprivileged households.

NCAA purchases corn on a quarterly basis and distributes it to homes at a discounted rate. The distribution of food, however, is getting less sufficient to satisfy the available household size as a result of the population rise. 

Notably, despite other services being freely offered to the community, the practice of purchasing and distributing food has been reported to contribute to the creation of dependency syndrome.

In response to this situation, the NCAA has recently launched a farming program outside the conservation area in neighboring villages of Karatu District as one of the initiatives to empower households and help them achieve a year-round food security. The program proved to be quite successful over the course of two years, as demonstrated by the mobilization of 58 households to start growing corn and beans outside of the immediate vicinity in 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. As a result, a significant amount of corn was produced, which was viewed as a great success for the program to eliminate reliance on food subsidies and aids.

VETERINARY SERVICES

The 2017 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimates that there are approximately 887,514 livestock in total, of which 250,000 are cattle and 637,514 are short ruminants. Since livestock farming is the primary source of financial support for the NCA community, the NCAA through the community development department’s veterinary services division plays an important role in ensuring livestock diseases are frequently treated and monitored. 

The prevalence of diseases presents a challenge for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area as it is a multi-use land area where human being, livestock, and wildlife coexist. This calls for management and prevention measures. NCAA through its veterinary personnel provides immunizations against most diseases.

As part of livestock development strategy, we conduct programs such as artificial insemination, provision of mineral supplements for the livestock, construction and maintenance of livestock infrastructures such as cattle troughs, Dips, Dams, Borehole, slaughter slabs, and crushes. Currently the number of these infrastructures available includes 18 cattle dips, 7 boreholes, 28 dams, 25 crushes, 4 slaughter Slabs, and 21 cattle troughs.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROJECTS

BEEKEEPING PROJECT

Beekeeping is one of the development projects implemented by NCAA for two primary purposes: First, to help the indigenous communities within the area generate revenues by selling honey and other goods, and secondly, to engage communities within and neighboring villages in biodiversity conservation endeavors.  

The NCAA’s apiculture project is carried out effectively and systematically by organizing small groups of apiculturists who are then eligible for beekeeping training, free beehives, and harvesting equipment. However, the project is intended just for communities located within or next to the conservation area.

NCAA is currently executing a scale-up project to enhance beekeeping and bee product production in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. A five-year project (2021/22 – 2025/26) is being carried out through three (3) main components;

  • Increase bee product production and efficiency by involving more individuals in beekeeping industry.
  • Increase the value of bee products by constructing honey processing factory.
  • Introduction of apicultural-tourism as a new supplementary product for attracting tourists.

Currently, the project has successfully managed to distribute 3,179 beehives to 123 apiculturist groups.

Beekeeping
Beekiping2
Beekeping

COMMUNITY HEALTH

NCAA provides health services and promotes the advancement of health services in the local community. 

Activities under this priority include supporting the construction and renovation of health facilities, conducting HIV/AIDS and STI awareness campaigns in the local community, providing outreach services and a mobile clinic in collaboration with the Ngorongoro district council and Endulen Hospital, providing nutritional food to malnourished children, patients, and breastfeeding mothers, and conduction of health education in primary schools and training to traditional birth attendants at community level.

Moreover, the NCAA in partnership with the Regional Administrative Office and the Ngorongoro District Council facilitates and conducts community awareness for households to join an Improved Community Health Fund (ICHF), which is an essential component to ensuring community access to health services.