September 19, 2021
This Week in Human Rights News
Tourism and ‘conservation’ efforts in Tanzania wildlife park is pushing out native Maasai people
Sources: Mongabay, UNESCO, PINGO’s Forum, Foreign Policy, Ngorongoro Crater Tanzania
Heavy tourism and ‘conservation’ efforts have been pushing out native Maasai people in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. Maasai people have lived in the region for more than 100 years but have been facing oppressive policies that prohibit them from cultivating crops or tending to livestock, which is a traditional part of Maasai culture. Meanwhile, tourism continues to bring profit to the region, which Maasai people are not seeing any share or community investment from.
On September 9, two advocacy groups, Oakland Institute and Rainforest Rescue, delivered a 94,000-signature petition to UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and the government of Tanzania. The petition called for the cancellation of a plan to rezone the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), a vast area of protected land (8,292km2) in the Arusha region in Tanzania.
Formally established in 1959, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is classified as a ‘multiple land use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing.’
The area is known for having dense wildlife, specifically with animals that attract tourism, such as lions, rhinos, elephants, and leopards. Tourism revenue generates around $55 million per year, and in recent years, tourism in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has increased significantly. Between 1984 and 2018, tourism increased by 1,081%, from 55,000 to 650,000 visitors per year.
In the past decade, the Tanzanian government has enacted several oppressive policies, such as the banning of agrarian farming and livestock-keeping in the Ngorongoro area, and prohibited the building of permanent structures for Maasai people, despite the existence of permanent tourist accommodations in the area. Maasai people are traditionally pastoralists and cultivate crops, such as cereals, legumes, vegetables and bananas, for self-sufficiency. These restrictions have had a profound negative impact on the livelihood of Maasai people, who, as a direct result, are facing high rates of poverty, starvation, stress, and disease.
Advocates estimate that the rezoning plan from UNESCO and the government of Tanzania could displace up to 80,000 Maasai people. Earlier in 2021, the governing body of the NCA issued eviction notices to 45 people and ordered the destruction of 100 buildings as an ‘attempted first step’ to implementing the rezoning plan. However, the notice was canceled following public pushback.
Conflicts involving native communities, government, and industry are a common global issue. The voice and existence of Indigenous communities in areas deemed worthy of conservation have been ignored, and in worst cases, violated.
The treatment of Maasai people in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is one such example: the government, in tandem with UNESCO and other organizations, has consistently attempted to lay claim to the region dubbed as having ‘outstanding universal value’ in an effort to conserve the lands in the name of wilderness ‘purity’.
This would keep its wildlife population stable (a move that benefits tourism) whilst displacing and starving the region’s native peoples who used to harmoniously work the land in sustainable ways.
In a testimony earlier this year, Flora Oltumo, a Maasai woman from the Misigyo village, told journalists, “Ngorongoro is a beautiful place that attracts lots of peoples from around the world to come to see the landscape and the rich biological resources that we live with and they undoubtedly go home happy and refreshed. We, the people of Ngorongoro, deserve to be just as happy.”