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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

land and water conservation, Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro, tourism

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Geography

Abstract

There is an increasing concern over environmental change on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro (Newmark 1992). For the Chagga, the indigenous people of this region, Mount Kilimanjaro is the source of all life. Primarily, they are dependent on the mountain for water, which is vital for their agricultural production and domestic needs. Historically, land has been passed down from father to son in these tiny African villages. However, as the population in the village increases, the sizes of each plot gets smaller and smaller until the plot becomes unusable. Likewise, as the Mount Kilimanjaro National Park and Forest Reserve (KNPFR) continues to expand, the land for farming in the surrounding villages becomes highly fragmented and subsistence farming is nearly impossible because of land and water access. Still, there are several environmental and social changes affecting the viability of land conservation programs on Kilimanjaro because of its reliance on tourism. Dr. Jeffrey O. Durrant and ten other students observed these conflicting issues facing the Kilimanjaro region during Spring and Summer Semesters of 2002. The design of the project was collaborative, but the observations and data collection in each village were done on an individual basis.

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