Tanzania in dilemma over scramble for Ngorongoro reserve

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