Ngorongoro Maasai to Be Evicted

The Oakland Institute has brought out a new report on pastoralists in northern Tanzania: The looming threat of eviction: the continued displacement of the Maasai under the guise of conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) (2021, 32pp). It reveals the Tanzanian Government’s plans to evict 82,000 residents — mostly Maasai — from their land. This was announced in April 2021 as part of the Government’s multiple land-use management and resettlement plan developed to address the concerns of international conservation agencies and to generate tourism revenue for Tanzania.

The plan is to expand the NCA from 8,100 km2 to 12,083 km2 by including parts of Loliondo Game Controlled Area (GCA), already contested in the East African Court of Justice, and Lake Natron GCA. It would create new restricted areas where the Maasai would be denied access for housing, livestock grazing and cultivation, and recommends abandonment of nine settlements.