Official opens Loliondo area ‘Pandora box’
It’s a wild affair

From The Arusha Times

By Staff Writer

As the government embarks on the exercise to screen Non-government and Community based organizations operating in Loliondo, more revelations are coming from ongoing conflicts.

An official here in Arusha wants the investigation to focus on tour/hunting companies which have formed bases in the game controlled area.

Jowika Kasunga, former District Commissioner for Ngorongoro stated that he had previously issued an alert to the Natural Resources and Tourism ministry regarding the tendency of some foreign Safari firms bypassing the Tanzania Investment Center and entering into direct contracts with local villages in the area.

“It is now too late, the natural resources people should have acted earlier,” said Mr. Kasunga who is now the district commissioner for Monduli. “What we have in Loliondo is an underground battle between tour firms and the hunting company with the former striving to drive the latter out of the area. Things are so serious there that it is not easy to describe everything over the phone,” maintained the official.

According to Kasunga, the battle between those parties has resulted into some NGOs being used as pawns to fight the war on behalf of people who fund them, including safari companies and other ‘potential investors’ who are eyeing the lucrative game controlled area.

But as 2010 election time looming some residents in the area point out that politics could also be playing a major role in destabilizing the constituency; “There are parties with political ambitions who are also busy pumping cash to local organizations here,” divulged a source who preferred anonymity.

The Arusha Regional Commissioner, Isidori Leka Shirima said the Regional Security Committee in their recent meeting had resolved to audit and screen all non-government organizations operating in Ngorongoro District within which the Loliondo area is situated.

“From our list here there are 13 non government organizations,” said the RC adding that there are also 17 ward-based Community based organizations. In total there are 30 such organizations in the district.

As for the Safari companies, the RC said it was not easy to identify because many have by-passed all official processes and struck pacts with local villages; “We now have to list them down one-by-one and go through each of their contracts to find out which firm is operating legally and which is not,” said Mr Shirima.

Speaking in Ngorongoro last weekend, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Shamsa Mwangunga had explained that the government was also intending to conduct fresh demarcation of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area so as to clearly draw borders separating different activities taking place in sync within the vicinity.

The 4000 square kilometer area which is Loliondo GCA is torn between big-game hunting, game viewing tourism, campsites, farming, livestock grazing, natural resource conservation and animal corridor feeding the vast Serengeti, Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Ngorongoro Conservation area. These activities have of late been clashing against each other.

Tanzania: Villagers Accuse Cabinet Minister of Dilly-Dallying
Anthony Mayunga
25 September 2009



Residents of villages surrounding Ikongoro and Grumeti game reserves in Bunda District, Mara Region, have accused the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Shamsa Mwangungwa, of dodging their questions.

The minister, who addressed an impromptu public rally at Hunyari ward in the district on Wednesday, ordered game wardens to forthwith stop impounding livestock grazing in the game reserves buffer zones and arresting their owners.

The villagers were, however, curious to know about the minister's sudden twist of decisions after her ministry recently evicted and torched houses of villagers at Loliondo in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region, allegedly for trespassing on a game reserve.

The villagers were also surprised by the minister's sudden about-turn because during her last tour of the villages a few months ago she told them that the law did not allow them nor their livestock to encroach areas declared in the government gazette as game reserves.

The villagers complained on the government's failure to involve them in the entire process of transforming the areas into game reserves between 1980 and 1994. They said their livelihood depended on a river and pasture available in the reserves.


"I have summoned the game wardens here so that they can be informed that you are allowed to drive your livestock out of the game reserves in case they encroach not more than 100 metres into the buffer zone," she

said and continued: "Livestock cannot think as we do. They can enter into a game reserve, but in case they exceed 100 metres into the game reserve, the law will take its course."

Ms Mwangunga said she could not respond to all the villagers' questions in depth because she had to return to Dar es Salaam for other pressing issues.

She stressed that with the exception of the conservation area, the rest were not earmarked for other uses.

So what are the chances of Loliondo actually being allocated to a hunting company rather than staying a private hunting ground for Arab Royalty (UAE?) in the next block allocation?

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by Brett Adam Barringer:
So what are the chances of Loliondo actually being allocated to a hunting company rather than staying a private hunting ground for Arab Royalty (UAE?) in the next block allocation?

Brett

None.....ab$$$olutely none!

That'$$$$ what I figured.

Brett

Activists ponder suing government over Loliondo Maasai evictions


LOCAL human rights activists are in the final process of filing criminal and civil cases against the government on behalf of Maasai pastoral communities who were evicted and had their kraals burnt down within the Loliondo Game-Controlled Area (LGCA) in Manyara Region.

An official of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Clarence Kupobota, confirmed to THISDAY in Dar es Salaam at the weekend that the activists under the Feminist Activists Coalition (FemAct) aim to offer legal aid to the victims in litigation against the government.

Kupobota said the cases will be filed at the High Court in Arusha, where more than 100 witnesses have been lined up to testify.

�We will file a criminal case against those who were involved in the burning of kraals and harassment of Maasai residents in the area, and a civil case to seek compensation for property which was destroyed during the operation,� said Kupobota.

Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Organizations Forum (PINGOS FORUM) Executive Director Edward Porokwa told THISDAY by phone from Arusha yesterday that the cases will be filed in the near future.

�I can’t tell you exactly when, but the process is in the final stage...relevant documents for the filing of the cases are being worked on at the moment,� Porokwa explained.

Reports say Ortello Business Corporation (OBC), a hunting company registered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, is behind a sequence of events where hundreds of Maasai kraals (bomas) were set ablaze and the occupants forcibly evicted, in order to protect OBC�s hunting activities.

Residents of at least eight villages within the LGCA accused the company of influencing the operation on claims that the local communities have been destroying the environment through cutting of trees and farming activities.

Some pastoralists from Ololosokwan, Olarien Magaidur, Soit Sambu, Ngirgir, Arash, Maaloni, Karkarrmoru, and Malambo villages have sought government intervention to rescue them and their livestock.

It is understood that various Arab royals and businessmen spend weeks in Loliondo each year, hunting antelopes, lions, leopards, and other wild animals.

A group of Loliondo pastoralists marched to State House in Dar es Salaam recently in a bid to gain audience with President Jakaya Kikwete and present their grievances to him face to face. However, they did not succeed in their venture.

The Minister responsible for natural resources, Ms Shamsa Mwangunga, told a news conference a few days after the State House march that the government had started working on allegations of human rights abuse during the Loliondo eviction operation.

But according to the minister, most of the Maasai pastoralists caught up in the evictions were actually Kenyans who had crossed the border in search of pasture and water for their cattle following prolonged drought in that country.

FemAct has issued a statement calling on the government to immediately stop the forcible evictions in Loliondo, describing it as a gross violation of human and citizenship rights.

�The government should provide detailed information on the tax and customs duty payment records of this company (OBC), its use of Tanzanian air space, and the immigration status of all its visitors,� the FemAct statement said.

Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) Executive Director Ussu Mallya told THISDAY that the activists will continue to advocate for the rights of the evicted Loliondo pastoralists.