Setting the Record Straight About Evictions & Abuses to Expand Ruaha National Park

Tanzania’s National Parks Act clearly states that “all human settlement (with the exception of essential TANAPA personnel, essential authorized researchers and advisors and essential hotel or permanent tented camp employees) will be prohibited in all National Parks.” As a result of GN 754, the government considers these villages to be illegally within a National Park. Until the boundaries of the RUNAPA are officially changed, or the National Parks Act is amended, these villages are at imminent risk of eviction.

This was made clear in October 2022, by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD), Dr. Angeline Mabula, who officially announced that five villages (Luhanga, Madundasi, Msanga, Iyala, Kilambo) with a population of 21,252 and an additional 47 sub-villages from 14 villages would be evicted – with their legal registration cancelled. She warned locals, “If you continue to be there and the village is delisted it means you are breaking the law.” This official announcement was followed by GN 754 in 2023.

Impacted communities have received no official assurances they will be allowed to remain in their villages. An unofficial directive given to the Commanding Officer of Ruaha National Park will not provide these impacted villagers with any security of their land tenure in light of the government’s past actions.

These claims are false. According to GN 754 boundaries, at least 23 villages are now considered inside RUNAPA. On December 19, 2023, 855 residents from 23 villages facing evictions in Mbarali District filed a case (Reference 45 of 2023) in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) against the Attorney General of Tanzania to nullify GN 754. The case was brought to the regional court since efforts to stop the expansion of RUNAPA in Tanzanian courts have been delayed and failed to provide justice. Sworn affidavits from the impacted villagers reveal that they were not consulted regarding the decision that will devastate their lives and force them out from their homes. 

During the World Bank management’s visit to impacted villages in June 2024, communities confirmed to them they did not provide their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent to GN 754.

Legally registered villages in the Mbarali District that face eviction from GN 754 include:

Mahango, Mkunywa, Iheha, Nyangadete, Magigwe, Vikaye, Igunda, Ivalanji, Ikanutwa, Nyeregete, Mwanavala, Ibumila, Songwe, Warumba, Ukwavila, Kapunga, Iyala, Luhanga, Madundasi, Msango, Simike, Kilambo, and Udindilwa.

A review of RUNAPA’s new boundaries from GN 754 reveals that dozens of additional sub-villages will also now be located within the park, leading to the eviction of thousands more.

As extensively documented by the Oakland Institute, TANAPA rangers have not just prevented cattle from going into the park. They have seized cattle, grazing in legally registered land, to destroy livelihoods and thereby force people to move out. Between 2022-2023, thousands of cattle were seized near RUNAPA, decimating herders’ livelihoods. During the pre-investigation, the Inspection Panel heard testimonies directly from pastoralists who were brutally attacked during cattle seizures by TANAPA rangers, while grazing cattle within their legally registered land. Despite the ongoing investigation by the Inspection Panel, TANAPA has audaciously continued seizures in recent months:

• On March 24, 2024, TANAPA rangers captured 549 cattle and three donkeys belonging to “Joe”  a ****** pastoralist from ****** village. The animals were seized in ***** village and driven into the park near Madundasi. On March 26, the Mbarali District Court sold the animals as unclaimed property. Since the murder of his son by TANAPA rangers in 2019, “Joe” has been living in fear that rangers will retaliate against him for his past attempts to seek justice. He is currently in hiding and fears for his life (information redacted due to fear of retaliation against “Joe.”)
• On April 20, 2024, 809 cattle were seized by TANAPA in Iyala village. The herders were forced to pay over TSh 120 million [~US$45,000] to reclaim their herd despite the fact they never broke any laws and were in village land when the seizure occurred.

Additionally, farmers in several villages are prevented from planting their fields by TANAPA rangers, who also confiscated farming equipment at the start of the rains in January. The enormous financial strain induced by TANAPA’s cattle and farm equipment seizures is destroying livelihoods of the villagers.

The Tanzania Times and Tranquility News articles both willfully ignore the World Bank and Inspection Panel’s findings from earlier visits that launched an official investigation and led the Bank to suspend REGROW project funding. The World Bank has not published the findings from their June 2024 visit as Pan African Visions incorrectly asserts nor has it contradicted the Oakland Institute’s findings.

The Oakland Institute has never claimed that widespread evictions have already occurred. What it has documented is how the government is forcing people to leave the area through livelihood restrictions and horrific abuses by paramilitary TANAPA rangers. Enforcement of the new GN 754 park boundaries is also increasing hunger and poverty in the communities – with the intent of forcing them out of the area. Tens of thousands of lives are currently on hold as communities struggle to survive.

The Tanzanian government blatantly violated World Bank safeguards when it moved forward with its October 2022 eviction announcements and GN 754 without consulting impacted communities or preparing a resettlement plan as required by the World Bank project agreement. When World Bank management suspended disbursements to the project, it cited “noncompliance with the Project’s Financing Agreement in relation to safeguards requirements namely, resettlement procedures and compensation,” as the Institute previously documented in the Unaccountable & Complicit report.

This blatantly false claim is appalling and severely undermines TATO’s credibility. In recent years, Tanzania has been subject to global condemnation for its human rights abuses to boost tourism. In 2022, in response to the government’s eviction plans in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and violence in Loliondo, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, nine United Nations Special Rapporteurs and numerous international human rights groups all issued statements condemning the government’s actions. The 2022 US State Department Human Rights Report bluntly stated that Tanzania “does not recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples…[who] may face forcible evictions from traditionally Indigenous lands for conservation or development efforts.”

In 2024, the government further escalated its campaign against the Indigenous across the country through violence and cattle seizures. The long history of illegal evictions and abuses in Tanzania to expand protected areas and boost tourism has been well documented over the years. See for instance a 2016 report from IWGIA which details evictions, human rights abuses and loss of livelihoods as well as government’s contempt for national laws and court decisions. 

There is extensive evidence that small farmers and pastoralists are not responsible for the Ruaha River’s degradation or reduced energy generation. A 2010 statement from James Ananya, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, cited numerous studies that showed the “increased irrigated cultivation during the dry season by large farms in the area” was responsible for environmental degradation. Other studies have shown the power cuts experienced in the 1990s were actually due to the mismanagement of the two dams rather than a significant reduction in the annual flow of the Great Ruaha River.

The government did not consult or seek the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the local communities before issuing GN 28, which intended to double the size of RUNAPA from 10,300 km² to approximately 20,226 km.² Efforts by the Mbarali District Council and legal challenges prevented evictions following the 2008 announcement. Local communities remained in the area as GN 28 was neither implemented nor enforced. Villages considered inside the GN 28 boundaries were not delisted and retained their legal status. As a result, people have not been “encroaching” on the area as it remains their legally registered land.

The park size created by GN 754 may be 400 square kilometers smaller than GN 28, but given that GN 28 was never implemented nor enforced, GN 754 is actually a massive expansion from the pre-2008 boundaries of the park that are currently recognized by the communities. GN 754 is a renewed attempt by the government to expand the park to now include at least 23 legally registered villages – home to over 21,000 people.

The Tanzanian government has been very open about its goal to attract five million tourists and bring in US$6 billion from the sector annually by 2025. While RUNAPA is currently less visited than the overcrowded northern destinations, the government is actively working to change this. Current efforts closely follow a 2015 strategy document that USAID produced for the government as the path that will bring in millions more in revenues annually from the Southern Circuit.