Robin Hurt Community Wildlife Project

The Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife Project, formerly known as the Cullman Wildlife Project, was founded in 1990 on the conviction that wildlife and its habitat can only be conserved by involving the local people, and from that involvement, give them a direct benefit from the wildlife among which they live. The future of wildlife in Africa rests in the hands of its indigenous people. Wildlife must be an attractive, lucrative and beneficial form of land use to communities to encourage its long-term stewardship. Without the full support and cooperation of local communities, wildlife in Africa is surely doomed. The project had its origins in the United States in 1989. Mr. Hurt's perceptive philosophy of encouraging local communities to take part in conserving their indigenous wildlife as well as benefiting from its utilization was progressive for the time, but is now the basis for many wildlife programs in Tanzania. The project attracted the support of Mr. Joseph Cullman 3rd, a well-known businessman and conservationist, who has since been a major donor to the project. The Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife Project also owes its success to the generosity and support of other donors, including Mr. Herbert Allen, Ms. Elizabeth Johnson, Mr. R. Wood Johnson, the Coca Cola Company, Mr. Fred Mannix, Mr. Ron Mannix and many other generous supporters. The project has also received enormous support from many Tanzanian Government officials, particularly the Director of Wildlife, who has given energy and experience through the conviction that, the Cullman and Hurt Community Wildlife Project is a pioneer in the field of involving local communities in wildlife conservation. To involve local communities in the promotion of wildlife and habitat conservation through the proper sustainable utilisation of renewable resources;

• To promote and encourage village anti-poaching programmes;
• To co-operate and help the Wildlife Department in all its conservation ideals;
• To discourage illegal, unselective and wasteful use of wildlife, such as commercial meat poaching, by such means as cable long line snaring;
• To help local communities understand and manage wildlife in a sustainable manner and to take on responsibility for its long term stewardship;
• To ensure that communities benefit from wildlife in terms of money, employment, food and community projects;

In summary, the idea is to encourage village communities living near wildlife areas to take on the responsibility for the well being of wildlife and its habitat, through realising that wildlife is a renewable and lucrative natural resource. Wildlife will provide a better long-term return through its conservation, than by its over-exploitation.