T.RES Worldwide initiatives

The Parco Alpi Marittime (Maritime Alps Nature Park) has been twinned with the Tanzania National Park since 1998. This co–operation programme has focused on supporting the Maasai people on the borders of Mukuru and the Arusha (Mount Meru) National Park by creating a sustainable tourism project: a field camp with tents as a departure point for a camel safari towards Lake Natron, Ngorongoro or the slopes of Kilimanjaro, accompanied by the Masaai themselves.

Every year the lions, elephants, giraffes, breathtaking sunsets, lodges and exclusive camps of tents in the Serengeti and Taranghire parks attract thousands and thousands of tourists who are in love with Africa. Today in Tanzania, this elite form of tourism is the country's second source of income. Since 1998, we at the Parco Alpi Marittime have been twinned with the Tanzania National Park, a government agency managing the National Parks, seeking out forms of collaboration within the field of protected area management.

We have worked alongside the people at the National Park to draw up a “General Management Plan” for the Arusha (Mount Meru) National Park. The Tanzania National Park has its own satisfactory organisation, abundant financial resources and it implements management models with great attention exclusively to conservation. And so far so good; but we feel it has missed out on an important factor: the presence of man and specifically, of the Maasai people. Driven away from their lands when the Parks’ boundaries were established, they have been confined to marginal areas on the border between Kenya and Tanzania and today they are estimated at some 350,000 people.

During our work with the Tanzania National Park, we made contact with the Mukuru Maasai, who are living in twenty or so Boma (villages) on the slopes of Mount Meru, on the border of the Arusha National Park. We were deeply shocked by what we discovered when we met with them: villages without water, no schooling for the Maasai children, high death rates… This situation led us to rethink the entire project. We focused our commitment to cooperation on trying out a model of sustainable tourism, developed for the Mukuru Maasai, to demonstrate how human involvement is a fundamental part of the conservation and management of any environment, especially if the area in question is a protected one.

In the first year, we set up a camp with tents as a departure point for camel safaris to Lake Natron, Ngorongoro or the slopes of Kilimanjaro. These safaris are accompanied by the Mukuru Maasai, who with their knowledge of the area, offer us a get hands-on experience of their culture and customs. During the safaris, evenings are spent sitting around a campfire, which keeps the animals away from the tents, and the tales, songs, and dances of these people are a unique and unforgettable experience. But we could not forget the children of Mukuru in our cooperation project and therefore, we have built a refectory for their school.

The children have only been going to school for two years; there are 84 of them in a single class and they have just one teacher but this is already a great result, even if there is still a great deal to do.

The Parco Alpi Marittime is now a part of the Mukuru Maasai community. We still need to deal with the problems linked to procuring water and healthcare (children are still dying of tetanus and the average life expectancy is very low) in order to ensure the minimum living conditions that every person on this earth has a right to expect. We have helped them and we will continue to do so, but above all, we wanted to show Tanzania National Park — and to tell the truth, we have already succeeded to a small degree — how it is possible to set up an alternative to the type of tourism involving large–scale, costly safaris on board deluxe 4x4s.

A few more years of support are still needed before the camel safari concern can be locally managed in full, but it is already possible for small groups of “responsible” tourists to stay there. The experience is absolutely unforgettable and you are sure to come back with a new sickness, but don’t worry, it’s only “mal d’Afrique”.

Giuseppe Canavese

For: Piedmont Regional Authority, Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime