Abstract
Since the 2000s, Tanzania’s natural resource management policy has emphasised Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), designed to promote wildlife and biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation and rural development. We carried out a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of social impacts of WMAs, collecting data from 24 villages participating in 6 different WMAs across two geographical regions, and 18 statistically matched control villages. Across these 42 villages, we collected participatory wealth ranking data for 13,578 households. Using this as our sampling frame, we conducted questionnaire surveys with a stratified sample of 1,924 household heads and 945 household heads’ wives. All data were collected in 2014/15, with a subset of questions devoted to respondents’ recall on conditions that existed in 2007, when first WMAs became operational. Questions addressed household demographics, land and livestock assets, resource use, income-generating activities and portfolios, participation in natural resource management decision-making, benefits and costs of conservation. Datasets permit research on livelihood and wealth trajectories, and social impacts, costs and benefits of conservation interventions in the context of community-based natural resource management.
Highlights
Background & SummaryCommunity-based conservation and natural resource management interventions (CBC, CBNRM) promise both biodiversity conservation and rural development
Future uses of datasets may include research on Tanzania’s rapid socio-economic change and growing inequalities[7] using data on change in wealth, land ownership, cultivation, and livestock assets, along class and gender lines
To select non-Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) villages that were as similar as possible to our sampled WMA villages prior to WMA establishment, we pursued a matching approach drawing upon existing available georeferenced data covering Tanzania relating to the period before WMA establishment (Table 2)
Summary
Community-based conservation and natural resource management interventions (CBC, CBNRM) promise both biodiversity conservation and rural development. Responding to these calls, we conducted a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of Tanzania’s community-based wildlife conservation policy This policy envisions direct engagement of local people in wildlife conservation on village lands through implementation of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). WMAs where pre-WMA socio-economic data were available (to facilitate validation of recall) were preferred This sampling strategy enables spatially and agroecologically disaggregated analysis of potential effects of conservation and tourism on rural livelihoods. Future uses of datasets may include research on Tanzania’s rapid socio-economic change and growing inequalities[7] using data on change in wealth (dataset 1), land ownership, cultivation, and livestock assets (dataset 2), along class and gender lines (datasets 2 and 3) These datasets could be used alongside environmental data collected from the same areas and at a similar temporal scale to allow combined socio-ecological impact evaluation. Published and forthcoming papers from this research provide context, qualitative analysis, technical background and test theories of change to better situate future analyses of these datasets[8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
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