The proposed study aims to assess the effects of conservation policies in the Ngorongoro’s Conservation Area in Tanzania to predict Maasai responses to future policies.
Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) addresses the two issues of conserving wildlife and of promoting rural development by integrating people into conservation – rather than the traditional “fence and fine” approach – in a unique setting of iconic African wildlife and Maasai culture, which attract large numbers of tourists. NCA policy restricts the activities of the 15 Maasai villages within the NCA but also creates economic opportunities in the tourism sector and funds development interventions both in response to community proposals and targeted to certain villages and households.
This research project has the following objectives:
- Assess the current socioeconomic status of Maasai living in NCA
- Develop data-driven frameworks for understanding household and village decisions within NCA.
- Use these frameworks and data analysis to inform NCA policy by predicting the likely response of households and villages to NCA-wide policies and location-specific infrastructure and projects:
- Improve the efficiency of poverty alleviation programs within NCA
- Evaluate the coincidence or conflict between poverty alleviation and resource conservation in NCA
