Is community based wildlife management gender sensitive? experiences from Selous Conservation Programme in Tanzania
Songorwa, Alexander N. / 1999

Community-based Wildlife Management (CWM) - commonly known in Tanzania as Community-Based Conservation (CSC) - is a new approach to wildlife management. It has been Introduced in Tanzania, and in some other African countries, as an alternative or supplement to the American National Park model, which is now perceived, by many conservationists, to have failed to protect wildlife, especially outside protected areas. In CWM governments are expected to devolve ownership of (or at least user rights for), control over and management responsibilitIes for wildlife to local communities. The approach is based on a number of principles, one being that community members, both male and female, have to fully participate and beneft from a programme. Using the CWM component of Selous Conservation Programme in Tanzania, this study examines how a CWM programme can impact negatively on village women. The study also examines the level of women's participation in such programmes and identifies reasons for their poor or lack of participation.