Project Update: October 2010

From 26th – 30th April 2010, the project team members visited the project site to explain the objective of the project to the local communities and also to get their consent for participation. The visit also became the first step towards building rapport with the communities.

From 20th – 27th May 2010, the project team members, with the assistance of Mrs. Maisha Kataya and Mr. Henry Kadauma, Assistant Parks and Wildlife Officers for Vwaza Wildlife Reserve and Nyika National Park, respectively, and local extension officers from Agriculture, Forestry and Health, conducted focus group discussions in the project site. The discussions were conducted in selected resource use zones in both Vwaza and Nyika. A standard open-ended questionnaire was used for this purpose. Pertinent issues that came out of these discussions will be discussed at a planned stakeholders’ workshop/training during the course of this project. The results will also be fed-back to the communities through scheduled awareness campaigns.