2.2 The African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 1968

One of the instruments that most governments in Africa have ratified is the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 1968. (Hereinafter referred to as "The African Convention").¹⁵ This is the main regional instrument that focuses specifically on wildlife conservation in the region. Tanzania ratified the African Convention in 1974, the same year when the Wildlife Conservation Act was promulgated.¹⁶ Most of the provisions of the Convention that seek to regulate and control hunting have been re-echoed in the Wildlife Conservation Act. An analysis of some of the hunting-related provisions of the Convention and the extent to which they have been taken on board by the law regulating hunting in Tanzania will be made now.

Article VII of the African Convention calls upon Contracting Party States to formulate effective legislation on hunting and capture of wild animals in order to ensure that the issuance of permits is properly regulated. The Article also lays emphasis on the need to enact legislation that would ban unauthorized methods of hunting. It prohibits the use of fire, mechanically propelled vehicles and hunting at night. This Article also prohibits the abandonment of carcasses of wild animals by hunters.

The provisions of Article VIII generally require Parties to provide special protection to those wild animal species that are threatened with extinction, or those, which may become so threatened, and the habitat necessary for their survival.

Article XI urges Contracting Party States to reconcile the provisions of hunting laws with customary rights of local community members living in proximity to areas set aside for wildlife conservation and management. In what may be construed as a complimentary to the requirements of Article XI, Article VIII (8) requires the Parties to have in place legislation that seeks to protect indigenous species of wild animal populations. This latter requirement has not adequately been taken into account by the provisions of the Wildlife Conservation Act. However, as will be discussed later, the spirit behind the Wildlife Policy reflects the necessity of reconciling indigenous hunting systems with the provisions of the law.

With an effective enforcement and monitoring mechanism, the provisions of the African Convention that seek to regulate hunting would certainly be useful guiding tools in regulating and controlling hunting in the jurisdictions of Party States. Indeed the Wildlife Conservation Act reflects most of the requirements and demands of the hunting-related provisions of African Convention. However, there exist some provisions of the African Convention whose implementation may prove to be a stumbling block to the proper regulation of the hunting industry.

One of these provisions is that which permits the creation of "competent authorities" in contracting Parties jurisdictions to control and regulate wildlife management activities. A careful reading of the intendment of these provisions reveal that these authorities be vested with sufficient powers that would allow them to do almost anything under the law in order to safeguard the interest of people and wild animals, in among other things matters related to the hunting industry. Sadly the comparable provisions of the Wildlife Conservation Act also reflect this discretionary vesting of powers to authorities charged with the control and regulation of the hunting industry.

15. 1001 U.N.T.S p. 3 (See also OAU res. CM/RES 169 (XI)
16. Act No. 12 of 1974, Laws of Tanzania.