Decision 17 BUR VIII.2

Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania)

The Bureau recalled that this site was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1988, and was deeply concerned to learn that the Prime Minister of Tanzania had announced that the residents of the area will be allowed to grow crops inside this World Heritage site, in contradiction to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Law. The Representative of IUCN noted that although allowing small areas of maize cultivation may help to ease conflicts between local people and site-staff, the announcement appears to have encouraged people to clear vegetation over extensive areas, including many slopes unsuitable for agriculture, resulting in a nearly uninterrupted belt of cultivation on the slopes of the Ngorongoro Crater, from Endulen to north of Empakai. The Bureau requested IUCN to report on the findings of a survey that is currently underway to assess the impact of the newly cultivated areas to the Committee at its next session. The Bureau recommended that the Committee, at its seventeenth session in December 1993, include once again, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the List of World Heritage in Danger and requested the Centre to communicate its concerns to the Minister of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment of Tanzania.