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As with natural resource management reform processes elsewhere in East Africa, Tanzanian CWM has become highly contested terrain, both physically and conceptually. The linear, centrally-led, devolutionary reform processes that were conceptualised by donor and NGO supporters of CWM in the mid-1990s have not materialised. Rather, multi-faceted political and institutional conflicts over the control of valuable land and wildlife resources characterise CWM in Tanzania today. Local jurisdictions for wildlife management have not emerged, and while a considerable amount of land has been set aside by rural villages for wildlife conservation through the work of various pilot initiatives, this has not resulted in an increase in local
revenues from wildlife or new commercial opportunities. The outcomes of over a decade of CWM in Tanzania reflect broader internal political
struggles over land rights, resource governance, and participation in policy formulation, as well as challenges facing efforts to devolve natural resource management to local communities throughout the tropics. One implication of these outcomes is that the strategies and assumptions used by international aid donors, conservation and development NGOs, and local activists for promoting greater local control over valuable natural resources such as wildlife in Tanzania need to be rethought. CWM needs to be approached as part of a broader social process of building local rights and access to resources through institutional reforms, rather than as a project-based or technical assistance strategy with short time horizons. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how practitioners in Tanzania and elsewhere might foster more effective and adaptive CWM approaches in light of these outcomes and experiences.