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Protected areas occupy about 27% of Tanzania’s land of 945,000 sq km and contribute 17.5% of its GDP. But who benefits from and pays for the cost of conservation? This study provides insights into these issues based on a survey conducted in the Serengeti ecosystem, involving 20 villages in Serengeti and Loliondo. The results show that villagers received insignificant benefits from conservation compared with the costs they are incurring. Governance of income at the village level was also a major challenge. There was a lack of capacity to handle large amounts of money and little or no planning, transparency, and accountability. It is recommended that income allocation to the communities is increased and external audits of village funds are conducted. Communities should furthermore be allowed to extract resources sustainably in protected areas. Youth should be encouraged to attend higher education and wildlife technical colleges to learn about the values of wildlife. Finally, the governance structures must be improved to make them gender equitable, participatory, transparent, and fully accountable to the communities and all citizens.

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This article presents findings from a study conducted in Kasulu District in western Tanzania, to assess the impacts, vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change and variability of natural and social systems in various agroecological zones of Tanzania. Focus-group discussion, households and key informants interviews were used in data collection, also including physical observations and reviews of literature. Findings indicated that there is high dependence on agricultural production, and hence on natural resources, which makes the livelihoods of these communities potentially vulnerable to negative impacts of climate change associated with decreased agricultural productivity, food insecurity and constrained water availability. Uneven seasonal distribution of rainfall and increased temperature are major concerns for the area. Meteorological records confirm that there has been steady increase in mean maximum temperature, which affects the natural systems, influencing the phenological processes in vegetation and increasing evapo-transpiration rates, and increasing risks of crop pests and disease outbreaks. Among the local adaptation options have been the shift to more drought-tolerant and disease-resistant crop varieties and occasional migration to areas with better agricultural potential. While most societies are fundamentally adaptive and have adapted to similar climatic risks, the existing adaptation mechanisms seem to be inadequate. To facilitate local adaptations, there is a need for more information to quantify the magnitude of climate-change impacts and separate them from non-climatic factors with compounding effects. The latter is particularly important for addressing key livelihood components that seem to be most affected by climate change.