EU Withdraws Funding For Tanzania Conservation Plan

The European Union Commission has joined the World Bank in cutting funding for Tanzania’s wildlife conservation programmes in light of concerns over human rights violation allegations.

The commission on June 5 cancelled the country’s eligibility for a proposed €18.4 million ($19.76 million) grant to be shared with Kenya, under a new biodiversity protection initiative for East Africa.

The decision was made due to contentious evictions of the indigenous Maasai from Tanzania’s Ngorongoro and Loliondo regions, ongoing for two years to facilitate expanded conservation tourism. Kenya’s southern and northern ecosystems will now receive the grant, with additional conditions to safeguard the rights of Indigenous communities in those areas.

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In April of this year, the World Bank halted funding for a $150 million conservation and tourism development project in southern Tanzania to probe allegations of human rights violations during its execution.

The inquiry, initiated in December 2023, is set to conclude this month. Its findings will determine the World Bank’s future involvement in the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth initiative, which includes plans to enhance Ruaha National Park.

In an update last week on requirements for getting a grant for the Eastern Rift Savannahs and Watersheds (ERiSaWa) component of its NaturAfrica programme, the European Commission (EC) conspicuously removed all mention of Tanzania from the plan while retaining Kenya and setting a new deadline of July 18 for proposals.

Corrigendum No. 4 was posted on the EC website’s Funding & Tenders Portal, focusing on two Key Landscapes for Conservation and Development (KLCDs) within the Southern Kenya-Northern Tanzania ecosystem, originally designated for support under ERiSaWa.

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The document highlighted the biodiversity significance of both KLCDs and the sustainable socio-economic prospects they offer to local communities. It emphasized multiple times that the new call for proposals would exclusively cover activities in southern Kenya and the northern Kenya ecosystem.

Critics, both local and international, have consistently criticized Tanzania for relocating the Maasai from Ngorongoro/Loliondo to Msomera in the distant eastern Tanga region. This is despite court rulings against the relocation, amid allegations that the move aims to establish new trophy hunting areas for affluent Middle Eastern clients within the northern tourism sector.

Source: East African News