ARUSHA, Tanzania, Nov.20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has teamed up with Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) in executing a special project which is aimed at reducing wild carnivores' attacks on livestock in northern part of the country.
Simon Mduma, director general of TAWIRI, said on Thursday that the project is reinforcing the Maasai kraals against the ferocious beasts that have been attacking people and livestock in Longido district.
"While communities lose cattle, goats and sheep during droughts, livestock predation is also a serious problem in Maasai-range lands, causing significant economic losses to the people who already suffer negative impacts of climate change," Mduma said.
Between 2009 and 2010, Longido District lost 166,582 cattle, 229,622 goats, 88,194 sheep and 14,600 donkeys due to drought which affected the northern zone within that period.
The famine also hit wildlife with herbivores succumbing to annihilation or migration due to depleted grassland, while the carnivores turned into attacking domesticated livestock.
Longido District Commissioner James Ole Millia said for many years the Maasai have been living in harmony with wildlife, sharing grazing lands and water holes with the nomadic people's livestock.
He however linked climate change as among the key factors that led to diminished resources which means people, livestock and wildlife are compelled to scramble for whatever is available.
"..and when carnivores like lions, hyenas and leopards jump over the fencing into Maasai kraals at dusk, attacking and stealing livestock therein, the Maasai would later retaliate by setting out with weapons to hunt down those wildlife species," he said.
"Among the major impacts of climate change is its influence on human-wildlife-livestock interface where the three parties get adversely affected while the surrounding environment somehow also gets to suffer the consequences," said Maurus Msuha, one of the researchers at TAWIRI.
UNDP through TAWIRI has hatched a novel approach for reducing livestock attacks in Maasai land under the new project known as "Adaptation to Climate Change through Improvement of Livestock Management Practices and Managing Human-Wildlife Conflict to Reduce Deforestation and Predator Attacks in Longido District."
The Maasai bomas are now being rebuilt using acacia logs and wire meshed fencing to inhibit penetration of large and small predators into the enclosures, ensuring safe passage through the night for livestock.
Since the fencing will now be permanent, forests and other natural bushes will be saved from harvest because old hedges had to be frequently replaced which called for regularly cutting down of bushes and trees to renew the traditional hedges.
Carnivores like lions, leopards have been falling onto the sharp ends of Maasai spears when they attack cattle and goats in their whole-meat menus when other wild herbivores become scarce.
