joint meeting between community members and park staff
Joint meetings between communities and park agency
TANAPA staff participating in PECC committee meeting in Buyuni village
Joint meetings between park agency representatives and PECC committee members were held twice per quarter. Each meeting was hosted by a different PECC village. All committee members from that village attended, as well as selected committee members from villages nearby. The staff community outreach officer generally attended representing TANAPA. These meetings provided opportunities to discuss details of issues that the communities face. They helped build relationships, for both sides to better understand each other’s position and find solutions together. As a consequence of these meetings, villagers were engaged in the park’s conservation activities in some instances, such as through receiving training as village rangers.
There was strong interest from the side of the communities to engage in discussions with park agency to make their issues known, beyond the formal process that is in place involving officials at village council level. TANAPA were ready and open to engage, attending the meetings regularly, based on existing mandate in the agency encouraging community engagement and a facilitator that encourages open dialogue, stays neutral, and values all contributions to the discussion with equal weight.
The joint meetings helped to clarify TANAPA’s employment procedures, but the communities still question the fact that staff employed in Saadani NP are hired and trained centrally and that education requirements are so strict even for simple jobs. A certain level of education is required for TANAPA employees. The level of education in the Saadani area is low, thus few of the park staff are from the region. The meetings helped improve relationships: communities acknowledge that they no longer view the park staff as enemies, but better understand the constraints under which staff are operating. The meetings were another opportunity to engage with TANAPA, helping to open up relationships and thus also contributing to the success of the official (high level) engagement process. Whether or not specific actions are taken immediately, villagers felt the meetings allowed TANAPA staff to at least consider their ideas, e.g. contracting for maintenance instead of being blocked by hiring policies