Boundary Hill Lodge

www.tarangireconservation.com

I spent two nights here late July. One of the owners and directors, Hartley King, came out one of those nights from Arusha to explain to me about the lodge, its history and its mission.

Boundary Hill is fifty percent owned by the Maasai of Lokisale village to the east of Tarangire National Park. It is located in its own 164 sq km Lokisale Conservation Area (LCA), set aside by its owners, the Lokisale Maasai. Tarangire Treetops (now owned by Sopa Lodges) is the other lodge within the LCA, but only Boundary Hill shares ownership with the Maasai.

The Lokisale Conservation Area is one of four which makes up the Tarangire Conservation Area (TCA), a total of 585 sq kms, the purpose of which is to provide opportunities for local communities to be involved with management of their own land so that peaceful co-existence with wildlife is maintained. Without the land which the TCA protects, the future of Tarangire National Park and its wildlife species is threatened.

Why is this? The Tarangire eco-system comprises some 20,500 sq kms and supports the national park; game controlled areas where hunting is allowed; and the village-owned land of the TCA. Tarangire National Park was formed in 1970 to safeguard its status as the dry season sanctuary (July – October) for large herbivores such as elephant and zebra. When grazing resources become scarce at the end of the dry season, and the rains start (November – March), this wildlife migrates out of the park's confines of 2600 sq kms into the TCA. This migration allows Tarangire National Park to regenerate.

It is imperative to maintain wildlife's unrestricted and safe movement during this wet season migration, but this is difficult. In the past, elephants, zebra and wildebeest took many different routes out of Tarangire into its hinterlands. To the west of the park, a growing human population of cultivators, unfriendly to migrating wildlife, has all but eliminated the old migration routes. Only a few of those original migration pathways remains today, none more important than those east of the park which now comprise the TCA. It is possible that what happened to the west of the park will happen to the east as well. Human populations are ever increasing. The Maasai cannot subsist on their cattle alone and many of them must farm. Other damaging land uses impacting the migration are charcoal-making and small-scale mining.

Boundary Hill Lodge is perched on Boundary Hill, a granite outcropping overlooking the vital wet season dispersal area of the TCA. I watched sunrise from my bed in room #3 while enjoying "bed coffee" delivered to my door. Cape buffalo and elephants moved below in the direction of the park, a ten km distance from the lodge. (For a view from the toilet see under Gallery!) It is a relaxing place where time should be built into the schedule for simply enjoying its beautiful location. But if one cares to think about more sobering issues while on their safari, Boundary Hill is also the place to grasp the complex problems facing Tanzania's national parks as they become more and more surrounded by polluted lands and unfriendly human populations to wildlife.

05-10-2007