VILLAGERS WANT ACCESS TO 'HALF-MILE-STRIP'

A water fall at the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Villagers living on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro have complained that they were being denied access to a forest that separates their homes and the Kilimanjaro National Park (Kinapa).

They said since the annexation of the government forest reserve surrounding Mt. Kilimanjaro to the national park authorities, they had been refused to collect firewood, water and graze their livestock in the area commonly known as half-mile strip.

They expressed their grievances during the climax of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, marked at the national level at Maruwa village in Kirua-Vunjo West division recently.

"The half-mile strip should be reverted to wananchi as has been the case since the colonial times", pleaded Mr. A. Mcharo, an official of a local non-governmental organization called Teaca.

The NGO has been involved in various projects aimed at conserving  and protecting resources around Mt. Kilimanjaro.

But Mr. Mcharo and other villagers who spoke to reporters during the event said women going there to collect firewood, herbs and other forest resources had been chased away or harassed by armed rangers from the park, adding that the problem started around the year 2000.

A water fall at the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Kinapa chief park warden Erasto Lufungulo, however, clarified that the villagers should not confuse between the disputed strip and a forest reserve that was annexed to the park by the government in order to ensure its full protection.

"The half-mile strip is actually a kilometre wide belt and is still accessible to wananchi. The problem is that some of them venture into the forest which is now part of the park. This is not acceptable", he said.

Mr. Lufungulo said Kinapa was ready to involve the villagers in the conservation of the park and that was why a buffer zone was created between their homes and the park. "They are allowed to harvest forest resources within this strip of forest and not beyond that", he said.

He added that conservation of the half-mile strip around the mountain had, in fact, been proposed by Kinapa as part of the latter's commitment to involve the local communities in environmental sustainability of the protected area.

Under the arrangement, the villagers are empowered to formulate by-laws to check destruction of the ecological resources around the mountain, especially the forest zone which is the source of rivers and streams and habitat of wild animals.

The former director of the Forestry and Beekeeping Division in the ministry of Natural Resoures and Tourism Dr. Felician Kilahama defended the government's move to annex the forest montane forest on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro to Kinapa, saying it was taken to stem illegal harvesting of timber.

"This is one of the prime forests in the country but was under threat because of illegal cutting of trees for timber, especially camphor trees", he said, noting that the forest was placed under Kinapa in order to rescue it.

The district commissioner for Moshi Novatus Makunga said the controversy surrounding access to 'half-mile' forest belt on Mt. Kilimanjaro had been discussed many times between the villagers and the authorities since 2013 but wondered why complaints were still being raised.

"We have met the villagers, took their views and formed committees to work on the demarcation lines of the forest belt", noting, however, that the government authorities were dismayed some villagers do not attend meetings convened to discuss the crisis.
At least 60 villages were involved.
Besides Teaca, another network formed by villagers to protect Mt. Kilimanjaro is called the Kilimanjaro Half- Mile Forest Strip Conservation Network (Kihacone).