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Tanzania’s Maasai communities are bracing for potential mass evictions as teh goverment moves to expand protected areas, threatening their ancestral lands and livelihoods.
Land Rights at Risk in Tanzania’s Lake Natron Region
A decades-long push to expand conservation areas is sparking fears of displacement for the Maasai people, who say their rights are being ignored in favor of tourism and hunting interests.
- In 2022, the Tanzanian government established the Pololeti Game Reserve, leading to the forced eviction of thousands of Maasai people.
- Authorities can reclassify land for “public interest” without consulting local communities, raising concerns about land dispossession.
- A 2021-2026 government plan proposes converting nearly 7,000 square kilometers of game-controlled areas into game reserves.
- The area around Lake Natron, a crucial breeding ground for lesser flamingos, is a focal point of the conflict, with potential for further evictions.
“I was forced to flee my home. They turned the area where I lived into the Pololeti hunting reserve,” says 36-year-old Nesikar Daudi, now living in Engare Sero. Her story is a stark example of a growing trend in Tanzania, where the expansion of protected areas is increasingly coming at the expense of Indigenous communities.
The conflict centers on land surrounding Ol’doinyo Lengai,the “Mountain of God” to the Maasai,a volcano rising near the town of Engare Sero in northern Tanzania. At its base lies Lake Natron, a shimmering salt lake considered the most important breeding site for 75% of the global population of lesser flamingos.
Since the 1990s, Tanzania has increased its protected areas by 20%, according to a report from the Congressional Research service. But Maasai lawyer and activist Joseph Oleshengay argues that the government’s current strategy is less about conservation and more about economic gain. “It is essentially a mechanism for land dispossession,” he says. “The idea is to empty these territories so they can be turned into something that makes money.”
The situation is particularly dire for those who rely on conventional pastoralism.The government’s restrictions on movement and grazing land are making it increasingly difficult for maasai herders to sustain their livelihoods.
Nalotwesha, 28, from the village of Napandi near Lake Natron, suffered two strokes. The Flying Medical Service saved her life during the first stroke, but was unavailable during the second. “The plane gave us hope.Now we are abandoned.there are no doctors or medicines in our village,” she says.The
