Tanzania has the great good fortune to have the gold-brushed plains of the Serengeti spread across its heart. Across that great savannah travel a million wildebeest and zebra that meld into an unbroken line moving across the plains with the single resolve to find greener grasses. This ceremony has been replayed for thousands of years. Tanzania is the setting for Africa's highest and lowest points. Mount Kilimanjaro stands 19,341 feet above sea level, while the floor of Lake Tanganyika is 1,155 feet below sea level. The ancient caldera that is the Ngorongoro Crater is a giant bowl filled with thousands of East Africa’s animals with a flamingo-filled lake at the bottom. Lake Manyara to the north is famed for its superb birdlife, and nearby Tarangire National Park offers breathtaking views of the Masaai Steppe and the mountains to the south. Southern Tanzania recalls Old Africa with remote national parks – Ruaha, Katavi, Mikumi and Udzungwa Forest, the “African Galapagos.” Off the mainland are the islands of Zanzibar that became independent in 1963, and merged with mainland Tanganyika a year later, which is also when the country was renamed Tanzania. Today, Zanzibar has a fascinating history to explore and magnificent beaches that invite relaxation. Tanzania’s exceptional wilderness regions with magnificent wildlife present outstanding safari experiences to remember for a lifetime.
As part of its overall Vision 2025 development plan, the Government of Tanzania is at the beginning stages of understanding the importance of sustainable tourism as a way to manage tourism growth and management in the country. With its wealth of spectacular natural attractions, the country has been proactive in establishing national parks and protected areas, with its most famous park, Serengeti, anchoring the northern safari circuit, which stretches from Mount Kilimanjaro to Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, and to the northern borders of where the Serengeti meets Kenya's Masai Mara, which forms part of the same grasslands ecosystem. While private sector travel companies and ecolodges remain the primary drivers of implementing sustainable tourism practices in Tanzania, new attention is being paid by the government to the benefits of tourism both for conservation rural economic development. Likewise, Zanzibar, with its rich cultural heritage and beautiful marine seascapes and beaches, seeks to better manage its tourism development, modeled on sustainable tourism.
The destination recognizes sustainability as being important and have embarked on establishing sustainable tourism practices.
Approximately 38 percent of Tanzania's land area is set aside in protected areas for conservation. The country has 16 national parks, plus a variety of game and forest reserves, including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In western Tanzania, the Gombe Stream National Park is where British primatologist and anthropologist, Jane Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzee social and family life in 1960, and her research in Gombe lasted for three decades. Her work along with many other projects continues through the Jane Goodall Institute.
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