Tanzania National Parks and Game Reserves
Tanzania is home to some of the best National Parks in the world. The
primary role of Tanzania National Parks is conservation.
There are 14 National Parks in Tanzania, which form the core of a much
larger protected ecosystem that has been set aside to preserve the country’s
rich natural heritage, and to provide secure breeding grounds where the
diverse fauna and flora available can thrive safe from the ever increasing
threat of human encroachment.
Tanzania has dedicated more than 42,000 square kilometers more than one
third of its territory- a uniquely high proportion of land to the formal
protection of its wildlife as National Parks and Game Reserves despite its
growing population pressures.
The existing park system protects a number of internationally recognized
bastions of biodiversity and world heritage sites thereby redressing the
balance of deforestation, agriculture and urbanization that is threatening
Tanzania’s remaining wilderness. In this, Tanzania has successfully resisted
the temptation to cash in on the short term gains of mass tourism.
Human activity is closely monitored and all development strictly regulated.
Building in the parks is kept unobtrusive and waste disposal is carefully
controlled. Park visitors and facilities are widely distributed to prevent
harassment of animals and to minimize the human imprint on the environment.
Guardianship of this rich resource is solely reliant on the goodwill of the
park’s neighbors- the indigenous tribes of the different parts of Tanzania
where the parks are located.
The Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) is working hard to ensure
that local communities have a sense of ownership and a vested interest in
the future of the parks by sharing the rewards of conservation and
delivering tangible benefits. A percentage of park revenues is allotted to
assist community development initiatives such as the construction of
schools, health dispensaries, water schemes and roads. Villagers are
encouraged to develop cultural tourism projects to cultivate their own
cultures and supplement their incomes.
Tanzania has set a benchmark of its responsibility- to its citizens, their
offspring’s and the world at large- in the conservation and management of a
global resource. In this, Tanzania remains committed to low impact,
sustainable visitation to protect the environment from irreversible damage
while creating a first class ecotourism destination.
By choosing to visit Tanzania either by merely browsing the net or by
actually making a trip to our beautiful land, you are supporting a
developing country’s extraordinary investment in the future.
Tanzania’s diverse attractions are of course bound by its people, who take
justifiable pride in their deeply ingrained national mood of tolerance and
peacefulness. Indeed, Tanzania, for all its ethnic diversity, is practically
unique in Africa in having navigated a succession of modern political
hurdles – the transformation from colonial dependency to independent nation,
from socialist state to free-market economy, from mono-partyism to
fully-fledged democracy – without ever experiencing sustained civil or
ethnic unrest.
Tanzania has also, over the past 20 years, emerged from comparative
obscurity to stand as one of Africa’s most dynamic and popular travel
destinations: a land whose staggering natural variety is complemented by the
innate hospitality of the people who live there.
How to define the Tanzanian experience? Surprisingly easy, really. It can be
encapsulated in a single word, one that visitors will hear a dozen times
daily, no matter where they travel in Tanzania, or how they go about it: the
smiling, heartfelt Swahili greeting of “Karibu!” – Welcome!
*National Parks *
– Arusha National Parks
– Gome Stream National
Park
– Katavi National Park
– Mount Kilimanjaro National Park
– Kitulo Plateau National
park
– Mahale Mountains National
Park
– Lake Manyara National Park
– Mikumi National Park
– Ruaha National Park
– Robondo Island National Park
– Saadani National park
– Serengeti National Park
– Tarangire National park
– Udzungwa Mountain National
Park
*Conservation Areas** *
– Ngorongoro Conservation
Area
*
**Game Reserves*
– Selous Game Reserve
– Mkomazi – Umba Game Reserve
– *Marine Parks and Reserves** *
– Kilwa Reserve
– Mafia Island Marine Park
– *Historical Places** *
– Zanzibar(Unguja and
Pemba)
– Bagamoyo
– Olduvai Gorge
conservation area
*
**Highland and Other Areas** *
– Usambara Mountains
– Uluguru Mountain
– Pangani coast
– Amani Forest
– *Lake Zones** *
– Lake Victoria
– Lake Tanganyika
– Lake Eyasi
– Lake Natron
– Lake Manyara
within lake manyara national park
—
Today & always do what you can to make the world a better place