Are there communities of people living in Serengeti National Park?

Are there communities of people living in Serengeti National Park? When we talk about the Serengeti National Park, we mean the protected area that is conserved and protected for only wildlife. The Serengeti National Park was gazetted as a national park in 1951, and up to now, the place has lived as the best destination for wildlife. However, history has it that at times, the people who are the Masai used to live in these places before they were gazetted as the national park.

These people used to hunt and graze their cattle as well as be involved in agricultural and tourist activities. Thus, the endless plains of the Serengeti National Park were used as hunting grounds for the Masai local people. They used these places for more than 200 years. This was so until the arrival and visit of the Australian explorer, Oscar Baumann, who discovered that this was a wonderful wildlife safari and that it was very interesting to the visitors who come to visit the Serengeti National Park.

Serengeti National Park got its name from the sirigiti, which is the Masai locals, and this word means the endless plain. However, it is believed that the hunting of the predators, especially the lions, by the local community, since the Masai people were protecting their animals from being killed by the lions. Such movement resulted in the decline of lions within the endless plains, and as a result, management, particularly British colonialists, decided to create the Serengeti endless plains game reserve, which began with a small area of 800 acres (equivalent to about 3.2 square kilometers) in 1921 and gained popularity in 1929.With these achievements from the game reserves, Serengeti National Park was naturally established in 1951, and this makes the history of conserving and protecting the conservation and the wildlife reserve.

Further, in the year 1951, the park edges and the boundaries of the park with the local communities were marked and demarcated, and after this, the Masai Mara people were relocated by the British colonial governments, and the Masai Mara were located near the major and main communities, especially those who were staying, and the remaining ones were transferred and taken to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the people are living with human-wildlife within the peaceful environment. Most of the Masai people live within the Serengeti National Park and these occupy the eastern frontiers of the Serengeti National Park and the western part is densely populated by the growing population of the locals that are engaged in farming and also look after their animals, especially the cattle, which is their tradition.

Serengeti National Park is a park that is bounded by the seven districts, and Serengeti National Park is part and partial of these districts. By then, the population was about one and a half million people, but as of now, the population has increased with the growth rate at about 12 percent. The main sources of livelihood included cattle keeping and agricultural activities. Most of the visitors have also improved the standards of living and some have also adopted other activities. These include cultural tourism and beehive keeping, which have improved the income and services of the local communities around the Serengeti National Park.

Serengeti National Park also faced challenges that are related to human-wildlife conflicts, and this has become a very big problem, but there have been strong conservation strategies to ensure that the visitors and the local people engage in the best areas of the land and there has been much more conservation. Regardless of whether no immediate people are present in the national park, their activities and impact should not be overlooked. Locals who live in towns around the recreation area, known as “support zone regions,” are the recreation area’s immediate neighbors. The Serengeti province preservation program and local area conservation services are two important adjacent local area organizations that help to protect and ensure the recreation area status around Serengeti National Park.

If you are still wondering if there are communities of people living in Serengeti National Park, the answer is no; regardless of the Masai pastoralists occupying the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, there are no people living within the Serengeti however, the western outskirts of Serengeti national Park have dense resident population, growing at 4 percent a year

The local communities around the Serengeti National Park have been promised by the Tanzania Wildlife Authority that this can be done by direct funding, and this has improved the performance and the service delivery of the local communities. This motive has ensured that the three are the positive relationship between the park and the local communities, which started when the benefits from the park were distributed to the local communities who realized the importance of the park in 2001.

Despite all these efforts, there is still some wildlife hunting that is being done within the edges of the Serengeti National Park by the local community who reside at these edges. Harvesting wild or bush meat is one of the serious challenges that the community faces, and this has significantly affected the animals such as elephants and rhinos that are being hunted for ivory and other animal products. The Serengeti National Park and the Tanzania wildlife authorities are working tirelessly to ensure that the conservation efforts are enhanced, and this is done through local sensitization and community involvement, as well as enhancing the cultural safari tours, so that the communities observe many benefits from the tourism in Serengeti National Park.