PART I
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
1. Short title.
(1) This Act may be cited as the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority Act, 2013.
(2) This Act shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may appoint, by notice in the Gazette.
2. Application.
This Act shall apply to Mainland Tanzania.
3. Interpretation.
(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires –
"aerodrome" means a defined area on land or water (including any buildings, installations and equipment) intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and surface movement of aircraft;
"animal" means any kind of vertebrate and invertebrate and the young and egg thereof, other than domestic animals;
"authorised officer' means the Director of Wildlife, the Director General, a wildlife officer, Wildlife warden, wildlife ranger or police officer, and includes the following-
(a) an employee of the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority of, or above the rank of wildlife ranger;
(b) an employee of the Forest and Beekeeping Division of, or above the rank of forest ranger;
(c) an employee of the Tanzania Forest Services of, or above the rank of forest ranger;
(d) an employee of the national parks of, or above the rank of park ranger;
(e) an employee of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of, or above the rank of ranger;
(f) an employee of the Fisheries Division of, or above the rank of fisheries assistant;
(g) an employee in a Wildlife Management Area of a designation of a village game scout;
(h) an employee of the Marine Parks and Reserve of, or above the rank of marine parks ranger;
(i) an employee of the Antiquities Division of, or above the rank of conservator of antiquities;
(j) an employee of the Tourism Division of, or above the rank of tourism officer; and
(k) any other public officer or any person, who shall be appointed in writing by the Director General;
"Board" means the Board of Directors of the Authority established under Section 7 of the Act;
"CITES" means the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora of 1973 and includes any appendices thereto and any resolutions of the Conferences of the Parties;
"closed season" means a period declared by the Minister under section 40;
"Commissioner of Customs" includes a customs officer employed by the Tanzania Revenue Authority;
"conservation" in relation to the wildlife, means protection, management and sustainable utilization of wildlife resources, habitat, ecosystem and the non-living environment supporting such resources, habitat or ecosystem with actual or potential use or value;
"Conservation area" means-
(a) a game reserve established under section 28;
(b) a game controlled area established under section 31;
(c) a wetland reserve established under section 31
(d) a corridor area, migratory routes, buffer zone and dispersal area designated under section 36;
(e) a Wildlife Management Area established under section 21 of Wildlife Conservation Act;
(f) a national park established under the National Parks Act (Cap.282);
(g) the Ngorongoro Conservation Area established by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act (Cap. 284);
(h) a conservation area established under the Antiquities Act (Cap.333);
(i) a marine park established under the Marine Parks and Reserves Act (Cap.146);
(j) a marine reserve established under the Marine Parks and Reserves Act (Cap.146);
(k) a forest reserve established under the Forest Act (Cap.323); and
(l) any other conservation area.
"consumptive use" means the taking of flora or the hunting or capturing of fauna in accordance with the provisions of this Act or any other protected law;
"dangerous animal" means any animal specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Act;
"Director" means the Director of Wildlife;
“Director General” means the Director General of Wildlife Management Authority
"dispersal area" means an area habitually used by wild animal species for feeding, laying, storing eggs, rearing or feeding their young, and includes breeding places;
"dwelling house" means any building or structure which is for the time being kept by the owner or occupier for the residence therein of himself, his family or servants or any of them, irrespective of whether it is not regularly used, and includes a building or structure adjacent to or occupied with dwelling house if there is communication between that building or structure and the dwelling house, either immediate or by means of a covered and enclosed passage leading from the one to the other, but not otherwise;
"export" means to take or cause any trophy to be taken to any place outside the country;
"Environmental Impact Assessment" shall have a meaning ascribed to it under the Environmental Management Act (Cap.191);
"farming" means intensive husbandry, breeding or raising of one or more wild animal species on a totally enclosed surface area that is less than twenty five hectares in a manner that tends to domesticate the animal or animals, with a view to engaging in different forms of wildlife utilization;
"fish" shall have the meaning assigned to it under the Fisheries Act (Cap.279);
“foreign livestock” means a livestock grazed in a game or wetland reserve in contravention of section 34 the owner of which:
(a) is not a Tanzanian and resides outside Tanzania;
(b) resides within Tanzania illegally;
(c) his ownership is entrusted to a person living in Tanzania while the owner resides or ought to reside outside Tanzania;
"game" means any animal specified in the Schedules to this Act and includes the eggs and young of any such animal;
"game animal" means a mammal, amphibian, bird, reptile, and insects and includes eggs and young of the aforementioned;
"game bird" means any bird specified in Part B of the Second Schedule to this Act and includes the eggs and young thereof;
“game controlled area” means an area declared to be a game controlled area under section 31
“game reserve” means an area declared to be a game reserve under section 28
"game sanctuary" means a place where wild animals are reared in captivity mimicking a natural state, primarily for educational and recreational purposes;
"hide" means any form of man-made screen, fence, platform, pit or ambush intended to conceal a hunter;
“highway" shall have the meaning assigned to it under the Road Act No13 of 2007;
“horn” includes rhinoceros horn;
"hours of darkness" means the period commencing at 6.30 p.m. on any day and expiring at 5.30 a.m. on the following day;
"hunting" includes any act directed or incidental to the killing of any animal;
"hunting block" means any area with game animals which has been delineated or set aside and approved by the Director General for trophy hunting;
"hunting Iicence" means any licence issued under Part V for the hunting of an animal;
"indigenous knowledge systems" means the systems of norms, cultures, rites, rituals and other wildlife conservation and management related practices of traditional communities which have been proved to enable the communities interact with, and utilize wildlife resources in a sustainable manner;
“ivory” means elephant tusk;
"licensing officer" means a wildlife officer designated as such by the Director General.
"livestock" includes cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, mules, donkeys and all other domesticated animals and their eggs and young;
"manufactured trophy" means any article made either wholly or partly, of or from any durable part of an animal by subjecting such part to any chemical or mechanical process, tanning, sewing or other process whatsoever;
"meat" includes the fat, blood or flesh of any animal whether fresh, dried, pickled or otherwise preserved;
"mechanically propelled vehicle" means all vehicles, including watercraft and aircraft, which receive their motive power from internal combustion, steam, reaction or electrical propulsion;
"migratory route" means an area of a strip or zone of land used by herds of wild animals during their migratory cycles or seasonal movements;
"Minister" means the Minister responsible for wildlife;
"national park" means an area set aside under the National Parks Act (Cap.282);
"non-consumptive use" means the use of scenery, cultural and natural resources that does not involve taking any specimen from the scene, cultural site or the wild and includes game viewing, bird watching, walking safaris, hiking, canoeing, boating, scuba diving, mountaineering and any other similar or related activity;
"non-consumptive wildlife tourism" means game viewing, walking safaris, camping, balloon safaris, canoe rafting, bird watching, sport fishing, hiking, mountain climbing, expeditions, documentary and commercial photographing, video shooting, filming,
cinematograph, and includes any other activity of similar nature directed at drawing leisure out of the use of wildlife;
"orphanage centre" means a place where wild animals incapacitated by reason of physical disability or without parent care, are kept in captivity for their survival;
"owner" in relation to any land means the person holding or deemed by any written law to be holding a right of occupancy over the land and includes a lessee, a mortgagee in possession and any person authorized by the owner, lessee or mortgagee to act on his behalf or in his absence;
"photographing of wildlife" means an act of taking pictures of any animal or process, and includes cinematography, video shooting and filming of wildlife or its habitat;
"problem animal"………………………………………………
"protected area" means an area of land or sea specifically protected for maintenance of biological diversity, natural or associated cultural resources and managed through legal or other effective means;
“protected species” means any species declared under section………………
"road" means any highway and any other road to which the public has access and includes bridges over which a road passes but does not include a road or part of a road within the cartilage of a dwelling house;
"scheduled animal" means an animal specified in the Third Schedule to this Act;
"specified animal" means an animal specified in the Second Schedule to this Act;
"species" means any species, subspecies or geographically separate population thereof;
"species management area" means an area of land or water that is subjected to active intervention for management purposes in order to ensure the maintenance of habitat or to meet the requirements of specific species;
"specimen" means-
(a) any animal or plant, whole or part live or dead used for scientific purposes;
(b) in the case of an animal: for species included in Appendices I and II of CITES and any readily recognizable part or derivate thereof; and for species included in Appendix III of CITES, any readily recognizable part of derivative thereof specified in Appendix III of CITES;
(c) in the case of a plant: for species included in Appendix I of CITES, any readily recognizable part of derivative thereof; and species included in Appendices I and II of CITES, any readily recognizable part of derivative thereof specified in Appendices II and III of CITES in relation to the species;
"traditional community" means an assemblage of people ordinarily resident on areas habitually occupied by wildlife and whose social, cultural and ordinary lifestyles are dependent upon wildlife and who have been declared by an order made under section 54;
"trophy" means any animal alive or dead, and any horn, ivory, tooth, tursh, blood, bone, claw, hoof, skin, meat, hair, feather, egg or other portion of any animal and includes a manufactured trophy;
"trophy dealer" means any person who is licensed to capture, buy, sell, keep, transport, cut, carve, polish, clean, mount, preserve or process trophies for commercial purposes;
"trophy hunting" means hunting as prescribed under the Tourist Hunting Regulations;
"vehicle" means a vehicle of any description whatsoever and howsoever drawn or propelled, and includes a vessel and an aircraft;
"vessel" means a ship, boat, dhow, submarine and every other kind of watercraft used in navigation, either on the sea or in inland waters and includes a seaplane and any amphibious craft;
"weapon" means any firearm, ammunition, dart-gun, missile, explosive, poison, poisoned bait, spear, bow and arrow, knife, axe, hoe, pick, club, stakes, pitfall, net, gin, trap, snare or any combination of these and any other device, method and or technology whatsoever capable of killing or capturing an animal;
"wetlands" means an area of marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary with water that is static or flowing, fresh or otherwise, including marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters and includes riparian or coastal zones adjacent to such area, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide laying within such areas;
“wetlands area “means any area managed as a wetlands area under section 31
“wetlands reserve” means any area managed as a wetland reserve under section31
"wildlife" means any wild and indigenous animals and plants, and their constituent habitats and ecosystems found on and, or in land or water, as well as exotic species that have been introduced in Tanzania and established in the wild, and includes wild animals on transit, temporarily maintained in captivity or have become established in the wild;
“Wildlife Authority” means an autonomous body that protects, manages and administers wildlife resources outside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and National Parks.
"wildlife corridor" means the area of land used by wild animal species in their seasonal movements from one part of an ecosystem to another, in search of basic requirements such as water, food, space and habitat;
"wildlife officer" means a wildlife officer, wildlife warden and wildlife ranger engaged for the purposes of enforcing this Act;
"wildlife protected area" means national parks, game reserve, Wetland reserve, game controlled areas, wildlife management areas and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area;
"wildlife ranch" means an area of extensive multiform utilization of species of wildlife where a wide range of complimentary uses are professionally managed so as to render the animals compatible of tourism hunting, sport hunting, cropping, sell of live animals, tourism and sport fishing;
"wound" means any incision or puncture which divides or pierces any exterior membrane of the body and includes maiming;
"zoo" means a place where wild animals are kept in captivity for recreation, research and educational purposes.
4. Objectives of the Act
(1) The objectives of this Act and to which all persons exercising powers, applying or interpreting this Act are to:
a. protect and conserve and administer areas with great biological diversity, including wetlands which are representative of the major wildlife habitats by also giving special conservation status to endemic, rare or endangered wildlife species and to enable Tanzania to effectively contribute and benefit from international efforts and measures to protect and enhance global bio-diversity;
b. protect and conserve wildlife resources and its habitats in game reserves, wetland reserves, game controlled areas, wildlife management areas, dispersal areas, migratory route corridors, buffer zone and all animals found in areas adjacent to these areas, by putting in place appropriate infrastructure, sufficient personnel and equipment;
c. enhance the conservation of wildlife and its habitats outside wildlife protected areas by establishing Wildlife Management Areas for the purposes of effecting community based conservation
d. encourage, promote and facilitate active involvement and participation of local and traditional communities in the sustainable management, use and conservation of wildlife resources in and outside wildlife protected areas network
e. integrate wildlife conservation with rural development through the transfer of the management responsibility of Wildlife Management Areas to local communities and ensure that the local communities obtain substantial tangible benefits from wildlife conservation;
f. foster sustainable and legal use of wildlife resources and take appropriate measures to prevent illegal use of wildlife
g. facilitate greater public awareness of the cultural, economic and social benefits for conserving wildlife resources and to enhance the recognition of indigenous knowledge systems of wildlife conservation and management and the intrinsic value of wildlife to rural people in wildlife management plans;
h. mitigate human-wildlife conflicts wherever they occur;
i. create an enabling environment for the private sector to invest in different forms of wildlife utilization and conservation and to create an opportunity for the citizens of Tanzania to become involved in the wildlife industry;
