Mara Goldman, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Science Hall, 550 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53706. Email: maramoja@hotmail.com. Community Based Wildlife Conservation in Tanzania: Space for Indigenous knowledge at the management level?

Following international conservation trends, Tanzania has come to realize the importance of looking beyond national park boundaries to conserve wildlife. In particular, the country is trying to enlist the support and participation of local communities in wildlife conservation efforts. The approach most often used in this process is awareness raising combined with education/training of local community members. The purpose of these efforts is to teach people the value of wildlife conservation and to train local game scouts to manage community based wildlife conservation areas. Such conservation outreach projects have been initiated throughout the Maasai step in north-central Tanzania. Here, Maasai pastoralists share their landscape with wildlife which disperse from the surrounding national parks during the wet season of every year. Despite an overall recognition of a unique ability of the Maasai to live compatibly with wildlife, no space has been made for Maasai indigenous knowledge within wildlife conservation spheres. Aside from basic participatory mapping projects, little effort has been made to incorporate Maasai knowledge into wildlife conservation and land-use planning projects in Maasai villages. What do Maasai know about wildlife in their area? How is this information learned and passed on and how can it be integrated with western scientific knowledge at the management level? This discussion will address the relevancy of asking these questions amidst the current policy shifts occurring in Tanzania, while also addressing the potentials and problems involved in "mapping" Maasai knowledge and territorial perceptions around Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks in the Maasai Step.

Key words: Africa, Conservation, Indigenous knowledge