Trophy Hunting and Elite Tourism Condemns the Maasai Eviction in Tanzania

by Marta Pacheco

More than 70,000 Indigenous Maasai residents in northern Tanzania, are once again facing eviction from ancestral lands as the government announced plans to lease the land to a United Arab Emirates (UAE) company to create a wildlife corridor for trophy hunting and elite tourism.

This local knowledge has been largely credited as allowing the large mammal population and ecological diversity to grow under the stewardship of the Maasai.

Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute

1. Trading culture and wildlife for business

The decision to lease the land to Otterlo, sometimes spelled Ortello, Business Corporation (OBC) was made known to Maasai leaders on 11 January by John Mongella, the regional commissioner for the Arusha region, according to a statement by the Oakland Institute.

The government plans to remove the Maasai from their land at some point this year, even if this decision will be painful to many.

John Mongella, Regional Commissioner for the Arusha region