Page 10 - Local Voices, Local Choices Excerpt

8 local voices, local choices
has developed into a powerful, holistic program that restores fertility to overused farmland (without the use of agricultural chemicals) and offers training in improved farming and agro-forestry practices, water man- agement, and marketing skills. We work with government agencies to improve primary health care and children’s education. We provide micro- credit opportunities, particularly for women, based on the principles of Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank, and scholarships to give girls a chance for secondary education. And this, I discovered, meant building improved pit latrines with separate facilities for boys and girls, and pro- viding girls with sanitary towels. Volunteers from the villages attend work- shops, learn about family planning, and offer this information to village families. This is well received as there is growing understanding that a good education is a way out of poverty, and families cannot afford this for the 8 to 10 children that used to be the norm.
Under the leadership of Dr. Lilian Pintea, we have employed cut- ting-edge geospatial mapping technologies (with support from Esri, Maxar, Planet, Google Earth Outreach, and NASA) to produce high-reso- lution maps, helping the villages to create the land use management plans required by the government and to monitor success. In their land use management plans, the villages around Gombe have set aside areas to form buffer zones between the park and the villages, reducing the poten- tial for conflict between humans and wildlife.
Conservation
Thus, it was with the support of local communities and government offi- cials that we were able to integrate planning for the conservation of chim- panzees and their habitat into the Tacare model. Using scientific data and local knowledge, we gained greater understanding of what was needed to protect the chimpanzees and find ways to address the key threats to them and their habitats. In this, the cooperation of the villagers has been crucial. Most of Tanzania’s remaining chimpanzee populations do not live in the protected areas of Gombe and Mahale national parks but in village forest