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For FCF, it is not enough to conserve only wildlife. Conservation must include entire ecosystems and the human communities that live in and around these ecosystems. The Community Development Sector has been established to meet FCF's mission to practice inclusive, people-oriented conservation.
Vision:
For communities in and around our concessions to attain and appreciate benefits through sustainable use of their natural resources.
FCF projects, designed in close collaboration with villages, district officials and the Wildlife Division emphasize the importance of conservation achieved simultaneously with sustainable development. Two field officers, together with anti-poaching team commanders and concession managers, work on the ground with representatives of eleven districts and over one hundred villages. This daily, personal interaction provides groundwork for solidly designed community-owned projects that improve the quality of living around Tanzania's protected areas and highlight the benefits of conservation.
Examples of such projects include:
Working together with the Wildlife Division of Tanzania, FCF strives to raise awareness of the benefits of conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Running concurrently with community projects, we conduct environmental education in villages. This is done through the medium of film, which clearly conveys the message of conservation to the largest audience. The feedback from this program has been enormously positive and villages have requested expansion of this program.
As tourism in Tanzania flourishes, we look forward to being ever-more actively involved in Tanzania's protected areas and in the communities surrounding these unique environments. The Friedkin Conservation Fund will carry on its long-term commitment to community-centered conservation in Tanzania and will continue to work with communities to increase the benefits they gain from the unique ecosystems in which they live.
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