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build capacity of African institutions. We helped set up the Wildlife 

 College in Mweka, which has trained a generation of protected area 

 managers, and we continue to do that work today. 



I would like to focus my testimony, though, on the issue of com- 

 munity-based conservation, which has been developing over the 

 last decade. African Wildlife Foundation has four projects under- 

 way right now that focus on this approach. All these have been 

 supported by USAID, I should add. USAID has been particularly 

 helpful in focusing on projects that link wildlife and natural re- 

 source consei^^ation with human needs, an area that is extremely 

 difficult to find funding for and understanding in the general pub- 

 lic. So AID has recognized the complex linkage of concerns and 

 played a very critical role in funding, not just for ourselves but 

 with a whole range of other NGrO's. 



For example, one of these projects in Tanzania, AWF is working 

 with TANAPA, which is the Tanzanian Park Agency. TANAPA had 

 a traditional protected area approach, a very good system of parks, 

 but had a negative relationship with the communities outside the 

 parks. As a result of the last 4 years of work, TANAPA now has 

 a new policy that involves sharing revenue with communities out- 

 side parks. They are putting part of their budget into a fund for 

 these purposes. Every one of their 12 parks has a community con- 

 servation warden whose job it is to work as a liaison with commu- 

 nities outside the parks. 



As a result, when a tourist goes into a park in Tanzania and 

 pays their entrance fee, part of those funds ultimately may dig a 

 well outside of the park; it may stock up a medical clinic; it may 

 build a school. And this is beginning to change the relationship be- 

 tween communities and the parks. 



We have similar work in Kenya and several projects in Uganda, 

 including Bwindi National Park, where half of the world's moun- 

 tain gorillas exist. There is a tremendous amount of revenue 

 shared with communities around Bwindi as a result of that tourist 

 enterprise. 



Each of these projects is somewhat different in its details, but 

 they share a common theme — the belief that local communities 

 must benefit from wildlife and from parks if we expect wildlife to 

 exist outside those parks. 



Something that is not often discussed, is that an elephant in 

 your backyard is not always a desirable thing. There is an enor- 

 mous amount of destruction that can come from wildlife in Africa 

 and people have been tolerating it over the years while receiving 

 no benefit. As a result, the amount of wildlife that moves outside 

 of parks in its natural migrations is dropping drastically. In some 

 parts of Kenya in the last 20 years, they have lost 50 to 60 percent 

 of their wildlife. If we expect that wildlife to survive outside those 

 parks, we must make common cause with those communities. 



In addition to the work AWF is doing, there are a number of 

 other similar projects. Some are private efforts, for example, a 

 project called the Cullman Wildlife Scheme in Tanzania. Probably 

 the best known of these other projects is the Campfire Program in 

 Zimbabwe. There is another program in Zambia. Community con- 

 servation is a very widespread and growing approach. 



