Just read that 30.000 Maasai will be evicted and no longer allowed to use traditional grazing lands adjecent to Serengeti NP. As if Hunters need more national bad press ...the article says they will be removed so "WEALTHLY HUNTERS" can shoot leopards and Lions. To make things worst they make it a point to devulge that this is a hunting company from a wealthy Arab Nation (UAR). This makes hunters come across as heartless bastards who could care less about native peoples. The few hunters that will benefit a small number of locals will in the long run be the end of hunting in that area because there will be NO public support for it since it is used only by a wealthy few. Case in point BOTSWANA !!!!!!No matter how much money you have you can't hunt Kenya and now Botswana. Ever here of the "Domino Theory"?? Soon PH's will run out of places to run to next. Sounds dire? Reality Baby Reality

Biased press. I very much doubt 30,000 people are going to be moved and this in itself sounds like a dubious statistic. If true then as a hunter I would have to say that unless the Maasai are adequately compensated the decision is abstract to say the least.

The US and European media does not have the patent on sensationalism and class warfare. African media seems to be pretty good at skewing facts and making up their own when it suits them. I wouldn't put much stock in an article that has a clear class warfare type bias to it.

This is only based on what seems logical to me. If the hunting area in question now holds 30,000 Masai would it not also follow that there would be very little game there? if there are 30,000 Masai can you only imagine how many cows and goats are there destroying the environment? I guess if the area is bordering on the Serengeti it will eventually be repopulated but the first few years might be a little lean there I would think.

Mark

http://abcnews.go.com/Internat...8887764#.UV9Sskko7lZ


Groups: Tanzania Gov't Kicking Maasai off Land

By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya April 5, 2013 (AP)


Tanzania's government is preparing to kick Maasai tribesmen off cattle-grazing land near the country's most famous wildlife park and will instead allow a hunting company from the United Arab Emirates to take control of it, groups and community members trying to raise awareness on the issue said Friday.

The reclassification of the land will create a "wildlife corridor" that will prevent the Maasai from accessing lands they've long used, thus destroying their traditional nomadic cattle-herding lifestyle, said Sarah Gilbertz of Survival International, a London-based group that works for the rights of tribal people worldwide.

Tanzania's Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism announced last week that it would not allow Maasai on a 1,500-square-kilometer section of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area "in order to resolve existing conflicts" and "save the ecology" of the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Loliondo game reserves.

But the groups say that's just an excuse to benefit a hunting company.

"Although the government claims that the land is needed as a corridor for wildlife, the area is leased to the Ortello Business Corporation of the United Arab Emirates to use for trophy hunting," Gilbertz said. Ortello couldn't be reached for comment Friday. Businesses are typically closed on Fridays in the UAE.

The Serengeti is considered to be one of the world's natural treasures. The reserve is a vast plain dotted with acacia trees and watering holes, where wildebeest and zebra gather in huge herds for annual migrations. More than 2 million animals migrate north from Serengeti into Kenya's adjacent Maasai Mara reserve every year.

The Maasai tribes indigenous to the region also use the land to graze cattle and other animals. Robert Kamakia, a Maasai community member who works for an aid group that helps pastoralists, said many meetings have taken place in recent days to try to solve the impasse, but no progress has been made.

"Now the government is organizing to set up the place so that livestock and human activity will be prohibited, and it will be the end of the community here because actually 90 percent of the community are depending on pastoral activity," he said, referring to Maasai who herd cattle and goats.

Ian Bassin, campaign director for the activist group Avaaz, said tens of thousands of Maasai villagers could be driven off the land. The last time the government tried to clear land for Ortello, security forces burned villages and tens of thousands of head of livestock died, Bassin said.

"This time the villagers say they will vehemently resist the eviction," Bassin said.

Avaaz posted a letter on its website it says is from Maasai elders asking for support to prevent the government from taking over the land. The petition had more than 1.2 million signatures by mid-day Friday.

"The government has just announced that it plans to kick thousands of our families off our lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to shoot lions and leopards. The evictions are to begin immediately," the letter says.

The letter says the government previously tried to carry out the plan, but that international attention forced the government to shelve it. "But the President has waited for international attention to die down, and now he's revived his plan to take our land. We need your help again, urgently," the letter says.

Bassin said that Maasai have deeds showing they are legally entitled to the land the government plans to close off to them.

If all this is true as reported I'd be very careful hunting in this block as you might well end up with spear in liver syndrome.

Just to put some numbers on this: 1500 square kilometers = 579 square miles, or an area 24 x 24 miles. How many cattle would that support? I would guess about 15-20,000, but I'm no cattleman. How many Maasai will be displaced as a result of losing this rangeland? I'll bet it is not close to 30,000.

For the game, I'd view this as a positive - regardless. Hopefully, not only UAE citizens will have the privilege of hunting there. Even if that's the case, though, it's a positive for the game.

Good! Especially if you care about wildlife as opposed to cows and goats. Arabs are not going to kill everything that eats meat and overgraze the land until it turns to dust like Engaruka.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
For the game, I'd view this as a positive - regardless. Hopefully, not only UAE citizens will have the privilege of hunting there. Even if that's the case, though, it's a positive for the game.

It is a hunting concession like any other though in this case it has been allocated to a UAE company which is duly registered in TZ.
The difference here is that the owners are Arab Royalty who have leased the area for their own personal use, and to the best of my knowledge has no commercial orientations.
I do not believe UAE citizens (generically) will have any such privilege.

quote:

Originally posted by Brice:
Just to put some numbers on this: 1500 square kilometers = 579 square miles, or an area 24 x 24 miles. How many cattle would that support? I would guess about 15-20,000, but I'm no cattleman. How many Maasai will be displaced as a result of losing this rangeland? I'll bet it is not close to 30,000.

Brice:

You stopped short on your calculations - which equates to 20 individuals to 1 sq. km. or am I misguided in my mathematics?
However, 15-20,000 head of cattle are going to each that parcel of land out of existence in the blink of an eye, bearing in mind that not all of the 1500 sq. kms surface area is covered in grass.

And that's before you even begin to consider the immense and irrevocable damage the charcoal burners manage to do so very quickly like the did on Mto Wa Mbu.

I don't know what reputation Allan Savory has as I had never heard of him before but linked to overgrazing I find this very interesting.
Holistic planned grazing

Just to add to calculations:

Acres per sq kilometer: 247.105
Multiplied by 1,500 sq kilometers gives you
370,657.5 acres.
Now divide that by 20,000 head and you have 1 head per
18.53 acres.

I have no idea of the pasture quality there, so I
have no way of knowing if that would work, but here
in Florida my cattle raising friends pack them much
more densely.

Depending on the area the average rain fall is between 15 amd 30 inches a year. Florida by the way averages in excess of 40 inches of rain for the entire state with areas exceeding 80 inches and the state averages is 52 + inches in a year.

The average for the area is about 50 mm or 1.96 inches. Just enough to sustain plant life for game animals.

Latest population census show that the Maasai at 430,000 in Tanzania. however some groups of the tribe are as low a 1,000. the report does not show what branch of the Maasai are being affected. Based on rain fall and following the rains for the best available grass they may be could go 1 cow for 20 acres with out reducing the ground to dust.

This will be interesting as groups have gathered 1.2 million signatures on Friday to re-look or stop the process.

I also have found where this will affect 3,000 Maasai not 30,000. the different reports show different numbers so who really know what is on target.

I would say that each family would own from 10 to 100 cows, so if we use 10 cows per person we would have 30,000 cattle. I would venture to say that the number of cattle would be higher, closer to 60,000 head of cattle on this area.

Something else i found:

Today, of the million-plus Tanzanian Maasai population, at least 66,000 live in the 4,000sq km Loliondo district. The proposed corridor will reduce their land by nearly 40%. The Loliondo highlands are nestled between two jewels of Tanzania's tourist industry – the Serengeti national park to the west and the Ngorongoro conservation area (NCA) to the south. To the east lie the salt flats of Lake Natron, while to the north is the Kenyan border.

News update i found:


Loliondo district, Tanzania


Tanzania announced last week it plans to evict 30,000 Maasai herders from a hefty swath of their ancestral lands in order to create a game reserve offering exclusive access for a Dubai-based hunting company.

Maasai activists say the proposal, which reduces their space here by 40 percent, will destroy their traditional cattle-herding livelihood. But their attempts earlier this week to hold a mass protest fell apart -- causing Maasai women to organize their own sit-ins, with as many 1,000 camping out in one town.

The government says the corridor is a necessity for conservation in the northern Loliondo region bordering the Serengeti, and charges that Maasai cattle are overgrazing the land.

The Maasai once ranged across northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, following seasonal rains with their cattle. But over the years they have slowly been fenced into a few areas like Loliondo.

Now, they could be losing some of that land, too. According to the proposal, they would be locked out of the planned corridor, while Ortello Business Corp. (OBC), a Dubai-based hunting outfit that has operated in Loliondo since 1992, would be granted access.

Maasai tribe members resent the prospect of soldiers and foreigners roaming fenced-off pastureland. During a 2009 drought, violence broke out between Maasai and the OBC staff, who reportedly burned houses and livestock.

An attempt this week at a mass protest rally, where some 50 local politicians threatened to resign from office, ultimately fell apart. The local politicians reneged on their promise to resign and local police outlawed public gatherings in the district, scaring many people away. Trucks of soldiers dispersed many of the demonstrators.

“I lost my faith in my government,” said one local woman, Napano Koyan.

Maasai women, dressed in traditional red shukas with shining jewelry, are now resisting on their own. Defying both the ban on gatherings and the patriarchal Maasai culture, by midweek they began holding small sit-ins under wiry acacia trees in villages across Loliondo, where they debated whether they should go to court or march on OBC’s camp.

Paulina Pere, a mother of four, walked two days across the savannah, wearing sandals made from rubber tires, to attend the demonstration. She was adamant she would not leave Loliondo. “I live on this land,” she said. “I gave birth to my children on this land, and when I die, I will go inside this land.”

Her dramatic gesture reflects the Maasai’s complete dependence on land for livestock, which they use to buy food, clothing, and school fees.

“I would even walk with no shoes because our land has been taken,” Ms. Pere says, adding that the loss of land “means poverty and death” for her and other families.

Numbers of women at sit-ins have swelled in recent days, with protesters refusing to leave, despite a further deployment of government troops that are driving the muddy roads of Loliondo in open air trucks waving dark red warning flags.

Tourism Minister Khamis Kagasheki said last week the government will not budge from its plans, described as a compromise that would divide current Maasai territory by giving about 40 percent for a wildlife zone and the rest to the Maasai for grazing.

“There is no government in the world that can just let an area so important to conservation to be wasted away by overgrazing,” Mr. Kagasheki said.

Benjamin Gardner, a cultural geographer at the University of Washington who has studied the Maasai since 1992, says he doubts they are harming the environment.

“The way the Maasai manage the range actually encourages wildlife,” Mr. Gardner says, citing their aversion to hunting, and prescribed burns that regenerate grass.

But Tanzania is also in need of foreign investment. Livestock rearing, although economically productive for people in Loliondo, is less lucrative for the government than tourism. The OBC hunting firm’s clients include the United Arab Emirates royal family, and pay so well that in the past, Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete has dispatched troops to keep the hunting grounds free of cattle and locals.

The reporter is anonymous for security reasons.

Statements about the Maasai managing their pasture land and co-existing with wildlife is total hogwash! Their traditional land management practices worked 100+ years ago when both their and their livestock numbers were being kept in check by disease, predation and natural mortality.

With access to modern medicine and livestock vaccines, their numbers - both human and livestock - has grown to unsustainable levels for their traditional pastoralist lifestyle to continue without degrading their range lands - whith the latter becoming more and more restricted as other human populations compete for the same land and different land uses are introduced to these once traditional pasture lands.

All the propoganda on Loliondo is annoyingly biased in favor of the Maasai who should rather be charged with environmental sabotage! Their swelling herds of coats (cattle, sheep and goats) have severely degraded millions of acres of land around loliondo, Lake Natron around Tarangire and into Kenya's Amboseli region, to the point that the process of desertification is very obvious! At this rate, all that will be left living on that land in 20 or less years will be wildlife adapted to very arid regions eg oryx, gerenuk, lesser kudu, scrub hare, dik dik, etc. Hopefully still viable for hunting and not much else.

As for them being evicted? Loliondo was declared a GCA back in the 50s by the colonial administration when most of that area had ioncredibly low human densities, so already then, that land was designated a protected area. The fact that now the Government is finally implementing what has been law for 60 odd years should not be seen as forceful eviction. Where will they go? They will move in with their cousins down the road - the Maasai do not keep a permanent household, hence the mud dwellings. Unfortunately, this will result in further pressure on the remaining land as it will now host another 80,000 +- head of coats unless the Government steps in again and forces them to reduce thier herds to carrying capacity. In 15 years time, i see mass conflict between these pastoralist groups (not just the Maasai) and Government over access to protected areas across Tanzania. Then our friends like jolo will be back here telling us that it is all hunting's fault.

Oh and by the by, Otterlo's annual contribution for this priviledge? Several million $ to Government, around a million+ $ to the wildlife Department in contribution for anti-poaching efforts and several hundred thousand $ to the communities. Guess what, the photo operators who for years cunningly found "loopholes" in the law to exploit and share wildlife resources avoiding the bulk of Government fees (some of whom persist with their operations) were never able to match, even closely, this level of financial contribution to conservation efforts.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
Statements about the Maasai managing their pasture land and co-existing with wildlife is total hogwash! Their traditional land management practices worked 100+ years ago when both their and their livestock numbers were being kept in check by disease, predation and natural mortality.

With access to modern medicine and livestock vaccines, their numbers - both human and livestock - has grown to unsustainable levels for their traditional pastoralist lifestyle to continue without degrading their range lands - whith the latter becoming more and more restricted as other human populations compete for the same land and different land uses are introduced to these once traditional pasture lands.

All the propoganda on Loliondo is annoyingly biased in favor of the Maasai who should rather be charged with environmental sabotage! Their swelling herds of coats (cattle, sheep and goats) have severely degraded millions of acres of land around loliondo, Lake Natron around Tarangire and into Kenya's Amboseli region, to the point that the process of desertification is very obvious! At this rate, all that will be left living on that land in 20 or less years will be wildlife adapted to very arid regions eg oryx, gerenuk, lesser kudu, scrub hare, dik dik, etc. Hopefully still viable for hunting and not much else.

As for them being evicted? Loliondo was declared a GCA back in the 50s by the colonial administration when most of that area had ioncredibly low human densities, so already then, that land was designated a protected area. The fact that now the Government is finally implementing what has been law for 60 odd years should not be seen as forceful eviction. Where will they go? They will move in with their cousins down the road - the Maasai do not keep a permanent household, hence the mud dwellings. Unfortunately, this will result in further pressure on the remaining land as it will now host another 80,000 +- head of coats unless the Government steps in again and forces them to reduce thier herds to carrying capacity. In 15 years time, i see mass conflict between these pastoralist groups (not just the Maasai) and Government over access to protected areas across Tanzania. Then our friends like jolo will be back here telling us that it is all hunting's fault.

Oh and by the by, Otterlo's annual contribution for this priviledge? Several million $ to Government, around a million+ $ to the wildlife Department in contribution for anti-poaching efforts and several hundred thousand $ to the communities. Guess what, the photo operators who for years cunningly found "loopholes" in the law to exploit and share wildlife resources avoiding the bulk of Government fees (some of whom persist with their operations) were never able to match, even closely, this level of financial contribution to conservation efforts.

Another example of this can be found in some parts of Mto Wa Mbu. I first went there something like 15 or 20 years ago and was an absolute paradise with relatively low human population and the last time I was there must be about 4 years ago and it had become a bustling town. However, large parts of the area had turned to absolute desert. Even the trees had been cut down and burned for charcoal and with the exception of an occasional euphorbia (which are no good to anyone for anything except poisoning fish) one could drive for hours in some areas without seeing as much as a single blade of grass........ those areas will NEVER recover.

Charcoal burning is illegal but despite that, you could drive for miles along that main road and see sacks of charcoal for sale every 50 yards or so......... and all that charcoal is made from local trees.

It won't be long before all the do-gooding aid agencies and NGOs etc will be stepping in to help feed the poor, starving natives but as I see it, their situation was created by their own stupidity and I'd personally let them stew in their own juices and give them bugger all!

http://allafrica.com/stories/2...80023.html?viewall=1


Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)



Tanzania: State Hands Land to Maasai People
By Rose Athumani, 8 April 2013




ORTELLO Business Corporation (OBC), a hunting company from the United Arab Emirates, has lost 2,500 sq kilometres of land out of 4,000 sq kilometres following a recent government decision on disputed land in Loliondo District.

Recently the government decided to allocate 2,500 sq kilometre of land to village communities in Loliondo carved from Game Controlled Areas.

The remaining 1,500 square Kilometres of land would be retained by the Game Controlled Area due to a number of reasons including protection of wildlife breeding areas and a corridor for iconic great migration of wildebeests. The area is also a critical water catchment area.

Briefing international media representatives, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ambassador Khamis Kagasheki, said the government made the decision to parcel out the land to Maasai communites to support landless families in the area.

"It was decided that the remaining 1,500 sq kilometres of land be retained as Game Controlled Area for continued protection of the wildlife and the environment for the benefit of the present and future generations," he explained.

He stressed that there will not be any human activities that will destroy the environment in the 1,500 sq kilometres piece of land. The minister noted that it is a malicious misrepresentation of facts for a section of people both in and outside Loliondo Game Controlled area to claim that the government is grabbing land from Loliondo local communities, when it is not correct.

Ambassador Kagasheki said the people had been living in the area illegally because the 4,000 sq kilometres had been a National Resource throughout history and the land had never been allocated to the Maasai communities under any government arrangement.

"The Conceivable logic here is that the government has made a unique history of land-grabbing from itself to provide for its citizens," he stressed. The minister noted further that OBC had the rights for hunting blocks of the area that was parcelled out as Maasai community village land, which they can use to generate income if they please.

Although OBC has a contract that ends in 2018, the government noted that it still can revoke if need be, in which case if they go to court, Ambassador Kagasheki explained he was ready to stand by his decision of allocating the land to the Maasai communities.

Last Friday, a story written from Nairobi, Kenya for AP reported that Tanzania's government is preparing to kick Maasai tribesmen off cattle-grazing land near the country's most famous wildlife park and will instead allow a hunting company from the United Arab Emirates to take control of it.

The matter was taken up by groups and community members trying to raise awareness on the issue. The Christian Science Monitor reported that Tanzania announced last week it plans to evict 30,000 Maasai herders from a hefty swath of their ancestral lands in order to create a game reserve offering exclusive access for a Dubai-based hunting company.

Ambassador Kagasheki noted that what the government has done is provide 62.7 per cent of the land under Loliondo Game Controlled Area to local communities, out of responsibility to provide for its citizen. "Surely no government in the world, can be blamed for meeting its responsibility to such high levels."

Meanwhile, MARC NKWAME reports from Arusha that the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has promised reviewing of the recent re-mapping of 'Loliondo Game Controlled Area,' in Ngorongoro District by taking the matter to the Prime Minister's Office.

Addressing a well-attended public meeting which was held at Olorien-Magaiduru Ward over the weekend, the Party's Deputy Secretary General, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba, said CCM officials who visited Loliondo, were satisfied with the local residents' concerns regarding the new land allocations.

"We have had meetings with local councillors, community elders and district officials and come to the conclusion that the 1,500 square kilometres of land that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism had planned to seal off, for conservation purposes, were needed by pastoralists in Loliondo," stated Mr Nchemba.

The new development caused protests from the 65,000 inhabitants of Loliondo, most of them being pastoralists keeping over 100,000 head of cattle and, who depended on the 'annexed' portion of land for grazing.

The area's 25 ward councillors, including the local Member of Parliament, Mr Saning'o Ole Telele, threatened to resign from their posts, a move which was, however, abandoned last week upon hearing that the ruling party was sending a special committee into the area to address the controversial situation. Led by Mr Nchemba, the party's team spent three days in Loliondo, concluding their mission with a big public rally last Saturday evening.

CCM is the only political party which is represented in both Loliondo and the entire Ngorongoro District of Arusha. According to Mr Nchemba, who was also accompanied by the party's Arusha Regional Secretary, Mrs Mary Chatanda, this special commission dispatched into the area by the CCM Secretary General, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, will table the Loliondo land issue before Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in the course of this week.

But, as the team was making their promise, a group of local Maasai women represented by Mama Pirias Maingo and Ms Mengishon Senet rose from the gathering and presented a special package to Mr Mwigulu Nchemba.

"These are our CCM party membership cards, you must take them with you; it does not mean that we are leaving the party but rather we are suspending our membership until you solve this problem," stated Ms Maingo. The women assured the party officials that, as soon as the problem got solved they would take back their cards.

Ian Bassin of Avaaz has previously been very liberal with the "facts".