Political ecology of wildlife conservation in the Mt. Meru area of Northeast Tanzania

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Abstract
The wildlife conservation problems in Tanzania are examined from a political ecology perspective. The analysis is historical, exploring the establishment of national parks under British colonial rule and the tightening of state control over access to resources at the expense of customary rights. Examples are presented from the Mt. Meru area of north‐eastern Tanzania. During the colonial period, the formal political debate over land and resource rights was conducted without the participation of African peasants. After independence the state continued to assert control over resource access unilaterally. As Meru peasants have effectively been shut out of the formal political process, their only recourse for defending the loss of access to natural resources is everyday forms of resistance, including de facto alliances with commercial poachers and ‘foot dragging’ in regards to compliance with conservation laws. Consequently there is little local support for current wildlife conservation policies on Mt. Meru and wildlife populations have declined in the 30 years since Arusha National Park was established there.