DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
Growing fears of eviction from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area are still the subject of much debate over the conflict that has lasted for more than two decades.
Residents in the Ngorongoro, which is on the list
of the Unesco’s world heritage sites, has sparked controversy over claims that
the reserve is on the verge of extinction following an increase in human
population and livestock, threatening the welfare of wild life.
According to the 2017 census in the area, the human
population reached 98,183, compared to 8,000 when the 8,292 square kilometre
conservation area was established in 1959.
The number of livestock has also increased from
161,000 to 805,556. Despite these figures, people have had mixed feelings about
what to do in the crisis where some see a permanent solution is to evict the
residents to protect the reserve for the national interests.
Others want a roundtable dialogue that will help to
reach an agreement without hurting anyone, believing that the removal of the
Maasai will erode the status of the world’s most diverse land area where
people, wild animals and livestock form a community.
Last year, President Samia Suluhu Hassan called on
officials to diligently handle the conflict so that the rights of the people
were not infringed upon.
She also raised concerns over growing human and livestock population, saying: “I know we agreed to accommodate some pastoralists and animals in the area, but the growing numbers are not acceptable. Otherwise, we need to agree as a nation whether to preserve Ngorongoro or remove it from the list of heritage areas.”
At the same time, the minister for Natural
Resources and Tourism, Dr Damas Ndumbaro, revealed plans to introduce a Bill in
the National Assembly to change the law that established the reserve.
But, throughout the period when the
misunderstanding re-emerged, the residents of Ngorongoro have at various times
complained and directed their petitions to President Hassan to reconsider the
conflict between the Maasai and the conservationists.
A resident of Ngorongoro, who asked not to be
named, told The Citizen yesterday that the beautiful conservation area that is
now seen as a source of income has a huge debt to the area residents.
He says the conservation strategies of Maasai
pastoralists existed long before the colonial government’s conservation methods
were known.
“As indigenous people, we have lived in peace with
the wildlife because they are part of us and our whole lives have been
nature-like,” argues the 33-year-old resident.
The issue, he says, was critical recently when
Arusha Regional Commissioner John Mongela expressed interest in taking 1,500
square kilometres from Loliondo village lands for exclusive use for
conservation and investment.
“We do not refuse to preserve this area, we know
its importance for the nation, but the politics that have been clearly visible
in this regard are the ones that are destructive and need to be looked at
carefully,” said the resident.
He noted the crisis, which began in 1992, has
halted the development activities of the Maasai community due to a lack of
economic development for fear of relocation.
He said the community has been legally in the
embattled area since being ousted from the Serengeti in 1958 and relocated to
Ngorongoro by the colonial government with a promise not to be relocated again.
“Any attempt to remove us without our consent is a
violation of this law as well as to remove the whole concept of a mixed land
area where humans, wildlife and livestock live together,” he noted.
Further, the issue has already caught lawmakers’
attention as well. Some legislators have been arguing over the removal,
reduction of people and livestock within the reserve, while others believing
that livestock was owned by a few rich people while leaving a majority poor.
Some of the MPs argued that citizens were not in
the area illegally but by law and they were entitled to all basic rights.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa promised
that the government will launch a dialogue with the people of Ngorongoro division
as well as those of Loliondo to find a solution based on human rights.
Simanjiro lawmaker Christopher Ole Sendeka said the
Maasai have been themselves conservationists so the government and Parliament
must think before taking any action.
He told Parliament on Thursday that retired President Jakaya Kikwete once said that there was no plan by the government to expel the Maasai from their area and now, according to Ole Sendeka, poor management had contributed to the crisis.
Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Lekishoni said the
Ngorongoro area cannot die because the people there are good conservationists
and have lived there for 60 years without killing animals or harming them.
“Today, these people are seen as poor, invaders and
unworthy. The children are going to school, there are health centres as well as
clinics. We must dialogue to find a solution,” explains Mr Lekishoni.
However, Special Seats MP Salome Makamba says the
status of Ngorongoro is high in the world as it has rock tourism and that
choice must be made, of who stays: wild animal, human beings or livestock. “I
have been to the Ngorongoro and the situation is bad. There are more than
800,000 heads of cattle but only three percent are owned by the natives, who
owns the rest?” she queries.
She claimed that the villagers were raising sheep
that were uprooting leaves and roots and as a result would give plants that
were not friendly to conservation. “There are people who are defending their
own interests against those of the nation.”
Independent lawyer Amos Machera said the problem
was people continuing to breed and migrate to the area which is a threat to the
reserve.
“People need to understand that they are increasing
in the area when it itself is not expanding. In this way the reserve will only
disappear, they should be relocated,” he told The Citizen.
It has also been reported that the residents of
Ngorongoro have for the second time filed an injunction order against looming
eviction from a place they have called home for decades.
That is, they say until a pending case they filed
before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) way back in 2017 is determined.
The stop order also seeks to prohibit any
development on the 1,500 square kilometre area prior to the Court’s ruling.
The case was filed before the regional Court by
herders from four villages, objecting the land’s allocation to a hunting
company.
“This is the second stop order. The first was requested in 2018”, said Mr Daniel Rogey, a resident of Olorien village in Loliondo Division recently.
He was speaking to journalists at the East African
Community (EAC) headquarters after filing their objection at the regional
Court.
Mr Rogey and a dozen of other herders alleged that
some of them had been threatened with eviction from the disputed area.
The stop order was filed by the herders through the
Pan African Lawyers’ Union (Palu), a continental forum of lawyers based in
Arusha.
However, the big question remains the best possible
way of reaching the lasting solution as activists call upon President Hassan to
give a chance and listen to the people of Ngorongoro district.
Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam recently,
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) national coordinator Onesmo
Olengurumwa said they believed President Hassan would be the first President to
provide lasting solutions to land and conservation conflicts in Ngorongoro. “We
are asking the President to give a chance to listen to the people of the
disputed area, get their arguments and finally work to end the long-running
conflict,” said Mr Olengurumwa.
Pleas have been made to Prime Minister Kassim
Majaliwa to visit the area and listen to all parties in attempts to finding
resolutions.
“We believe that the Premier will provide a way out
in this regard. Power cannot be used, people cannot be removed arbitrarily and
yet the reserve must be maintained, so which way to go is the remaining
question,” says Dr Modekai Mbaga, a development expert in Dar es Salaam. - The Citizen
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