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Despite the Maasai community being good conservationists of nature, they encounter Human-wildlife conflict, which has been one of the biggest challenges because of the nature of the environment they live in and pastoralist activities. Maasai are known for their rich culture and traditions, they have historically been exemplary stewards of nature, integrating their pastoral lifestyle with conservation of wildlife and ecosystem. However, due to their proximity to wildlife habitats, they live near protected areas, wildlife corridors, and compete for the same resources with wildlife such as grazing land and water. Kalambandea village, in Mwanga District, Tanzania,is one of the affected villages experiencing human-wildlife conflict due to its close proximity to Mkomazi National Park on the Tanzania side and Tsavo National Park in Kenya. They struggle with wild animals that move out of the parks searching for water and food and cause crop destruction, killing their livestock, causing injuries and sometimes causing death to people in the community. According to Prof Noah Sitati, WWF Tanzania Wildlife Species Expert, Mkomazi ecosystem supports over 40 lions and over 1,200 elephants.  

Papakinyi Laizer (42), is the chairperson of Kalambandea village, he happily shares his experience of how his community struggled with HWC and what the situation is now. “we used to lose more than 100 livestock including cattle, sheep, and goats. We had sleepless nights because of predators and during the dry season the situation was very worse  because elephants move out of the park in search of water and food and cause destruction and harm to the communities” he said. Papakinyi is one among the beneficiaries of Predator proof bomas in his household, he is happy that since the construction of predator proof bomas there has been no case of predators killing his livestock.

“Before the construction of bomas an average of 3 livestock were killed by predators per night, after the construction of bomas, no more cases of livestock killings thanks to WWF” he said.

Elizabeth Papakinyi (40) is a wife to Papakinyi, in maasai culture women are the one responsible for milking cattle, also milk and meat is one of their key and traditional food in maasai culture. She said “Before the construction of predator proof boma, sometimes we used to struggle with inadequate milk for food, because predators used to attack many calves, therefore affecting the level of milk to cattle.  But since the construction of this boma we are happy and no more cases of predator attacks on our livestock”

Climate changes also enhances human-wildlife conflict, because of drought it affects even in the national parks and protected areas and led to loss of biodiversity which led to competition of grazing area and water between wild animals and Maasai livestock these led to human wildlife conflict especially elephant, they were moving from the park searching for water in the communities. Because of the long period of drought from May to November, the nearby village is Kalambandea where this village was highly affected by elephants and multiple cases of crop destruction, animal harm and human harm hence creating fear to the communities especially students when going to the school. This led to high drop out of students from schools, especially girls’ for fear of elephants and other wild animals. “I am so happy now since the rainy season started we have enough water for our livestock and wild animals and also we use this water for some of the household chores, and we are sure it will help us in the dry season, therefore we are happy that our livestock will not compete with wild animals for water” he added.

Responding to this challenge WWF Tanzania supported this community by raising awareness on human-wildlife conflict to 72 people and training of Human Wildlife Conflict mitigation measures to village game scouts (VGS) as the mitigation measure. Furthermore, WWF constructed an example model of  predator proof bomas and constructed two charcoal dams in the villages and two in the Mkomazi National Park to retain elephants in the park. This project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through WWF Germany.

Novati Kessy, the project manager of this project, said “Each Boma cost 6 Million Tanzania shillings equivalent to 2300 USD, the constructed bomas are the model example for Maasai community to adapt”. Because per year this Papakinyi household  used to lose almost 50 to 60 livestock including cattles, sheep and goats. The predator boma has served 35,000 USD per year.  

For the rehabilitation of the Charcol dam the project used 60,000USD, the charcoal dam does not only serve the life of maasai livestock and wildlife but also has helped much in reduction of human wildlife conflict but also the maasai community use the water for home chores.  The dam is used by more than seven villages including Pangaro,Njoro, Luku, Kalamba and Ndea, serving 300 households in Kalambandea ward. It also serves more than 15,000 livestock according to the village chairperson Papakinyi Laizer.

WWF provides support to the villages to ensure people and nature are living in harmony. In Kalambandea village one of the important steps to make this come true has been taken by supporting the community with predator proof bomas and charcoal dams which has helped much in reduction of human wildlife conflict. Now there are no more cases for the retaliatory killings in the communities because of the newfound harmony with wildlife