Resource information
A fact-finding mission team was formed as a result of consultative meetings on the land dispute between the village government and pastoralists in Vilima Vitatu village in Babati district. The team was comprised of the following members: Kassian Mshomba (LHRC), Seif Mangwangi (Majira), Diana Mawalla (PINGOs Forum), Hamadi Sadick, Emmanuel Cornel (PINGOs Forum), Asraji Mvungi (ITV), Rodgers Luhwago (The Citizen), Bakari Mnkondo (Uhuru), Bernard Baha (HakiArdhi) and Chambi Chachage (Independent Researcher).
As the annexed minutes dated 16 May 2008 shows, the team was tasked to collect all relevant materials and information on the dispute. It must be noted that prior to the consultative meetings the pastoralists were accused of serious offences that amount to criminal charges as a result of the land dispute. Consequently the village government lodged a land case at a District Land and Housing Tribunal whereby pastoralists are accused of violating village bylaws by clearing the bush, degrading the environment and carrying out activities in the area declared as a community reserve land. Thus in the wake of all these interrelated issues the fact-finding team visited Babati between 26th and 29th May 2008 to gather information from village and district authorities, talk to villagers in particular pastoralists and other ordinary villagers in the area, visit the site in dispute and the new site that the village government has pledged to relocate the pastoralists.
Central to the dispute at hand is the issue of wildlife conservation, tourist investments and the desire of the village government and villagers to harness their natural environment to their advantage. According to the findings from a study conducted by Jim Igoe and Beth Croucher (2007), also confirmed in this fact-finding mission, the village government and villagers in Vilima Vitatu and the whole area under the Burunge Wildlife Management Area (WMA) are not well informed about this conservation initiative. They don’t have adequate information about the meaning of WMA. In the case of Vilima Vitatu, they found themselves under new regulations that they can hardly uphold after accepting to be governed according to a set of WMA regulation that they did not fully participate to institute. Recent En Lodge En Afrique (ULEA) investment’s activities in the area have brought these issues into the fore, culminating in the ongoing dispute.
This report, then, briefly analyses the underlying causes of the dispute in Vilima Vitatu and recommends short and long-term advocacy strategies to mitigate the dispute and safeguard the rights of villagers in the area in a manner that is beneficial, not only pastoralist villagers, but also to other villagers who share the rights to the wildlife corridors within their village land.
