Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should follow the following ecotourism principles:

• Minimize impact.
• Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people.
• Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate.

AFRICAN NATURE CONSERVATION TRUST (ANCT)

Safari Legacy's Commitment to the People and Wildlife of Africa

It is our belief that in order to protect the people and the wildlife which surround the National Parks, game controlled areas and migration routes we must involve villagers, tribesmen, landowners and farmers that live in these areas. In return for habitat protection and the careful supervision of natural, sustainable resources in their area, Safari Legacy has set up a fund (ANCT) that benefits the Indigenous communities with direct revenue and community chosen development projects funded by tourism that is conducted in their area. We believe that by directly involving the peoples who live among the wildlife, we can ensure the continued stewardship of natural sustainable resources and provide a worthwhile alternative to the poaching, deforestation, and land-clearing that increasingly threatens marginalized areas around National Parks and across the East African ecosystem as a whole.

The African Nature Conservation Trust (ANCT) is a non-governmental organization incorporated in the United Republic of Tanzania. It was conceived as the logical "next step" to programs and activities that have been undertaken over the past five years by members of its Board to address the pressing problems of habitat degradation, wildlife population declines, excessive charcoal cutting, and increased human-wildlife conflict. ANCT recognizes the crucial importance of ensuring the future integrity of Tanzania's unique ecosystems in order to enhance economic growth for Tanzania's people. The foremost objective of ANCT is to assist in sustainable land management and conservation initiatives through the development of community based civil society organizations.

The organization's goals include:

• Assisting in the development of projects to support Maasai poverty alleviation
• Capitalizing an improved network of social services in Simanjiro District
• Facilitating the development of new equitable private sector and community conservation enterprise deals in Simanjiro District

The ANCT is registered in both Tanzania and the United States. Tanzania serves as the operational base for ANCT's activities, while fundraising support comes from the US based committee. In terms of governance structures, ANCT has a two 12-member Board of Trustees, one located in the United States (fund-raising) and the other in Arusha, Tanzania (Steering Committee). Each Board meets biannually.

The Maasai of Simanjiro
Approximately 350,000 pastoralists populate the Maasai Steppe ecosystem. The predominant livelihood strategy in drier areas is livestock husbandry, while agriculture and agro-pastoralism are prevalent in wetter areas. The livestock population of the area consists of approximately one million indigenous zebu cattle. Historically, pastoralists practiced a nomadic and extensive land use system, which utilized marginal lands and water resources. They were dependent upon large tracts of land, which could be utilized according to particular demands at a given time. Thus, pastoralism is a land use, which inherently created fewer conflicts with wildlife. Conflict primarily was viewed from the perspective of disease transmission, predation, and death from encounters with wildlife. As land subdivision increases, pastoralists are compelled to become more sedentary, increasing the pressures on arid and marginalized land and sparking new wildlife conflicts. The decision of where to cultivate is often not informed by the knowledge of wildlife movements and their own range requirements. It is often decided by the proximity to infrastructure, rainfall and soil conditions. Wildlife cause damage to new crops and previously tolerant pastoralists are becoming increasing hostile to wildlife as agriculture expands in wildlife dispersal areas. In recognition of these pressures, wildlife conservation must take into account economic and land use diversification strategies for the local communities.

The last two decades have witnessed considerable immigration of other ethnic groups into the region, resulting in an annual population growth between 3.1 % to 22.8 % in various areas of the Maasai Steppe. Due to the increase in immigration of non-pastoralists, therefore the increased competition for resource use, the Maasai are no longer able to meet their subsistence needs based solely on pastoral production systems. These pressures are presently forcing the Maasai to change from a pastoral economic base to an agro-pastoral livelihood strategy.

Local human populations are increasing. Fast growing pastoralist populations are not able to maintain their livelihoods from livestock production alone and are forced to adopt livelihood strategies, which are incompatible with wildlife, such as cropping. In addition, pastoral land and wildlife dispersal areas are under threat from external factors that are allocated larger tracts of land for commercial cropping. One way of balancing the cost benefit ratio of wildlife incompatible crop cultivation and wildlife compatible pastoralism is to improve social development services using wildlife revenues to pastoral households. In most cases, pastoralists unfortunately bear most of the costs of wildlife but do not gain many of the potential substantial benefits. These benefits are global in nature, but the costs are paid for locally by communities (Norton-Griffiths and Southey 1995). As a way to solve this problem, wildlife (and natural resource) ANCT intends to continue to create, and support village development projects.