Sustainable Tourism in the Selous Game Reserve

Selous game reserve is a small staff of about 350 game scouts and technical staff; about one scout per 140 square kilometers. The headquarters for the Selous game reserve are in the Northern section of Matambwe. The battle for sustainable tourism in this vast game reserve has not been very simple and tough lessons have been learnt. In fact, now the battle for sustainable tourism is beginning to be realized.

Basically, half the income from the Selous is given back to the reserve to help keep this park in subsistence. A second scheme is to involve the communities around the park by allowing controlled hunting by the community people, thereby providing concrete benefits to the local people. In fact, without support from the local people, it would be impracticable to put an end to poaching. Working with and through the local communities (than being against them) has helped the reserve to flourish or burgeon.

As a result of international pressures hunting was banned in the 1980’s and the immediate aftermath was a disturbing decline in the animal populations; particularly the animal population. Due to this, hunting has been reintroduced, well away from the picturesque areas. The money collected from these hunting safaris is the main source of income for maintaining the reserve. As a direct consequence of reintroducing hunting, poaching is no longer a risk and the animal numbers have also increased noticeably over the past decade. Sustainable hunting safaris are rationally controlled and they are permitted in the reserve in the months of July and November. Without this income, the reserve would not have existed.

The reserve has set out restricts for the tourism in Selous to keep human impact as low as possible. Tourist numbers are kept down and lodges and camps are sternly restricted. There have been several new camps in the past few years. The lakes in the west of Tanzania and specifically Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater in the north of Tanzania have been beleaguered by tourist’s explosions over the past few years. Park fees have been dramatically increased from January 1, 2006 for the direct tourist areas as well as other less known areas like Selous.

The tourism area in the north of Selous game reserve and the south of Rufiji River is a real wasteland. To reduce the pressure on the lake areas and the Northern national parks, there are plans to develop this area for the photographic safaris. Tanzania is keen to maintain its’ parks and to keep tourism and human impact under control.