Tarime — SINGITA Grumeti Reserves through the Grumeti Fund supports the introduction of fish farming in two rural villages of Serengeti District in Mara Region in a bid to improve the diets of families and increase incomes.

It is hoped that the dependency on wild game found in Serengeti National Park for consumption and business is greatly reduced.

The villages are Bonchugu and Robanda which have highest number of poachers in the district. Both villages are adjacent to Grumeti/ Ikorongo game reserves in the western Serengeti. But a section of Robanda village is also within the Ikoma Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) that is potential for photographic tourism.

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TANZANIA – Tanzania will suffer a loss of more than $4 million (about 6.4bn/-) this financial year, after 50 foreign fishing firms terminated their contracts with the Deep Sea Authority (DSA) for fear of pirates.

“Pirate attacks are adversely affecting fishing activities in our deep sea,” the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development, Dr Mathayo David Mathayo, told the DailyNews on Monday evening.

Dr Mathayo said in the past Tanzania used to attract more than 72 fishing companies in the deep sea, but of late only 22 companies have been bold enough to continue with fishing activities.

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TANZANIA – The government has been asked to establish special projects to make wananchi, particularly young people in Tanga Region, engage in modern fishing. This would help in reducing unemployment among the youth, Ms Amina Mohamed Mwidau (CUF Special Seats), said yesterday in asking a question.

She noted that Tanga, like other regions located along the Indian Ocean, was endowed with fisheries resources which create major activities for most people but there were no special plans to improve fishermen’s standard of living, reports AllAfrica.

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EXCHANGE of fishing gears and provision of alternative economic activities to illegal fishermen has worked wonders in the coast of Southern Tanzania.

Under exchange of fishing gears Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP) offered a programme through which villagers could trade-in their illegal fine mesh nets in exchange for legal, large mesh nets. According to a study released through policy brief by the University of Dar es Salaam in conjunction with Environment for Development (EFD) the fishing nets exchange programme has largely helped to discourage illegal fishing.

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Kagera — KAGERA Regional Commissioner, Fabian Massawe, has urged residents in the region to grow fast maturing crops including maize and millet, to avert food shortages.

He has also advised residents in Chato District and other areas expected to have bumper harvest, to avoid selling all the food to middlemen. Mr Massawe made the appeal while opening a Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) meeting held in Bukoba Municipality on Thursday.

He said the Tanzania Meteorological department had forecast that long rains would start in March, this year and would probably rain above normal standards.

He said there was a possibility that the rains would stimulate floods, urging the leaders to sensitize people living in flood prone areas to vacate them before disaster hits them. He also urged residents in the region to participate fully in environmental conservation and control tree felling and bush fires.

Source:Tanzania Daily News