Serengeti General Management Plan

Serengeti National Park General Management Plan
trates more on military and adversarial skills, and thus community policing and social skills
are often lacking. The instigation of a training programme under this management action will
help to improve communication, conflict resolution and policing skills of all park staff.
Action 1.1.4: Improve SCIP planning mechanisms with communities and districts
The Support for Community Initiated Projects (SCIP) initiative was launched in 1992 and is
the major focus of TANAPA’s programme for sharing park benefits over the last decade. Unfortunately,
there are indications that some of the SCIP projects that have been selected are
not those perceived by villagers as being the most important or appropriate. Instead, local
and/or national elites appear at times to have sought to intervene and take advantage of the
SCIP initiative for development priorities more beneficial from their own perspective. In addition,
in some areas, only those who are able to attend village meetings can influence the projects
selected as community priorities, and thus less emphasis has been given to the concerns
of pastoralists and women. The other major issue emerging is that the communities
have very high expectations of the level of benefits they might receive. In some cases, this
has led decision makers to dismiss the efforts by SENAPA as being inconsequential.
This management action will strive to share these benefits in a more transparent and realistic
manner that addresses actual priority community needs. This will be achieved by ensuring
that the procedures developed by TANAPA for SCIP projects, which are clearly laid out, are
strictly adhered to. The Outreach Department will disseminate these SCIP guidelines and
educate communities in both the wide range of projects that may be implemented (not just
big building projects) and by canvassing the opinions and concerns of less vocal sectors of
communities. This approach in turn will help to ensure that community expectations are more
realistic.
Target 1.2: Community benefits from SENAPA enhanced and costs
reduced
Through the SCIP initiative the Park has worked with surrounding villages in contributing to
village development projects, mostly in the area of school improvement and health infrastructure
development. In line with the SCIP guidelines, the Park has worked with district authorities
and villages to ensure that the projects chosen are appropriate and match with district
and village development plan priorities. The total annual value of the SCIP projects contributed
to by the Park is shown in Figure E.2, with a total of about US$ 1,082,000 donated since
the scheme started in 1992.
However, current problems include a high demand for benefits from local communities, insufficient
mechanisms to create markets for local products, low community morale regarding
project implementation, insufficient obvious benefits from community tourism and insufficient
commitment to local training and employment. In order to address these issues and meet this
management target, the following management actions have been formulated:
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