Travel
22 February 2019
Two presidential commissions have recommended the mass eviction of Maasai people from some of East Africa’s most iconic conservation areas and tourist destinations.
The commissions were established by Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan following previous evictions of Maasai pastoralists from parts of the world-famous Serengeti ecosystem, and large-scale protests in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in 2024.
Now, despite a global outcry at the earlier evictions, the two Commissions have backed the previous evictions and called for them to continue, including in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Ngorongoro and neighboring Lake Natron.
They have described the long-standing Maasai presence in the area as an ‘environmental pressure’ that needs to be reduced.
Local NGOs that support the Maasai have been threatened and accused of ‘spreading misinformation or propaganda’ because they ‘conflict with government interests’.
The Commissions have called for the ‘relocation’ of all ‘non-conservation activities’ – in other words, Maasai occupancy of the land – outside the conservation areas.
They have also called for existing recognition of the Maasai people’s right to live in the Ngorongoro area to be removed.
The authorities maintain that these are ‘voluntary relocations’, but the Maasai have overwhelmingly rejected being moved.
‘We are blamed for environmental degradation while the unchecked expansion of tourism is ignored. Forced relocation, disguised as policy, has deprived our people of basic rights and dignity. We reject any continuation of these measures and condemn the Commission’s failure to reflect the voices, realities, and rights of our people.’
AN ANONYMOUS MAASAI SPOKESPERSON
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it was established, the ancestral right of the Maasai to live there with their cattle was explicitly acknowledged.
But UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has backed the so-called ‘voluntary relocations’, and UNESCO endorses the ‘fortress conservation’ model that underpins Tanzania’s approach.
‘These commissions were a sham, a gimmick designed to give Tanzania’s violent persecution of the Maasai a veneer of respectability. It was widely predicted that they’d back further evictions: the whole saga just confirms that colonial-style fortress conservation is alive and well in Tanzania today, and enthusiastically endorsed by UNESCO.
‘These recommendations give the green light to more evictions, in Ngorongoro and beyond. And while the Maasai are robbed of their lands and livelihood, the government, tour operators and so-called conservationists will enrich themselves from a landscape emptied of its original owners.’
CAROLINE PEARCE
Survival International director
The Commissions’ reports have not been published, but their findings have been widely reported in Tanzania and were presented at an official event.
The first commission looked at previous evictions such as the one from Loliondo in 2022; the second was tasked to make recommendations on how to improve ‘relocations’.
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