Tourism companies have unveiled a new ecotourism project that will help conserve wildlife in Tanzania, it has been reported.

Rural communities living next to Tarangire National Park have been approached by tourism companies to discuss a scheme in which the companies get paid for undertaking wildlife conservation in the area in return for payment.

David Peterson of Dorobo Tours said: "At the end of the day, our industry's sustainability depends on these communities having a secure economic stake in the health of the wildlife populations that their lands help produce."

People from the Emboreet and Loiborsoit villages accepted the proposition where they will give tourists access to exclusive areas and stop farming and settling permanently on certain land in exchange for money from tourism companies.

"The key to making the easement acceptable was presenting the deal to the village as a business proposition linked to system-wide tourism interests, and not making the deal about 'conservation' per se," said Mr Peterson.

Tarangire National Park is named after the Tarangire River that flows through the park.

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