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issn 0856 - 9135

Issue No. 0721:


July 7 - 13, 2012

Front page 3

Pastoralists, Hunters, Gatherers form rights platform

By Staff Reporter

Members of nomadic pastoral communities, traditional hunters and gatherers who gathered in Arusha recently have launched a special platform to advocate for their rights and interest in the ongoing new constitution drive.

The representatives of pastoralist communities, traditional hunters as well as fruits and roots gatherers from all over the country, converged in Arusha, under the auspices of the Pastoralist Indigenous Non-Government Organizations (PINGOS) Forum, where they called for the constitutional recognition of their respective survival endeavors.

To ensure that the proposed new constitution covers their interests well, the members of the ‘marginalized’ communities have formed a special ‘Katiba Initiative,’ to be simply known as ‘KAI’ through which they intend to help National Constitution Review team reach out to traditional hunters, gathers and nomadic pastoralists.


The coordinator of the Katiba Initiative, Advocate William Ole Nasha explained that the country’s marginalized communities such as nomadic pastoralists, indigenous hunters and traditional gatherers live in the remotest parts of the country where the national ‘Katiba Commission’ may never get to reach.

“We intend to work hand-in-hand with the Katiba team, assisting them to educate and mobilize the local communities to attend the constitutional review meetings where they can contribute towards the formation of the new governing laws,” stated Ole Nasha.

The chairman of the new ‘Constitution Platform’ (Jukwaa la Katiba) Mr Deus Kibamba said it was also upon the ‘Katiba Initiative’ to ensure that the process to formulate the new constitution does not undermine the current one.

“The current constitution has served the country very well in the last 50 years and it is still a valid document which must be respected even as we work to come up with a new constitution,” said Mr Kibamba.

The representatives of marginalized communities called for the new constitution’s recognition of the nomadic cattle grazing sector as an important segment of the country’s economy and that the land occupied by nomadic pastoralists should be respected by all.

“It has been the norm that the land belonging to pastoralists usually get leased out to foreign investors after the occupants have left it idle in their quest for greener pastures or water,” pointed out Mr Gabriel Ole Tuke from the SWEAT Development Program in Kiteto District of Manyara.

Adding to that, Alhaj Mohammed Leboi who is the chairman of Pastoralists Council in the Coast Region stated that, the cattle grazers normally leave parts of their land idle in order to allow new grass to grow but other people wrongly regard this as neglected land and move in to occupy thus causing conflicts.

quote:

Adding to that, Alhaj Mohammed Leboi who is the chairman of Pastoralists Council in the Coast Region stated that, the cattle grazers normally leave parts of their land idle in order to allow new grass to grow but other people wrongly regard this as neglected land and move in to occupy thus causing conflicts.

Poppycock ! - The numbers of cattle have increased a hundred fold; most areas have been overgrazed and these so-called cattle rearing nomads have invaded areas beyond their originally designated borders in search of virgin pastures.

The way I see it, the interests of indigenous peoples everywhere (including myself) are very closely aligned with those of the global hunting community.

I'm not sure how the pastoralists fit into that equation ... but as long as they practice their cattle husbandry sustainably; that is, without overgrazing, then their interests also fall into line with ours as their lands will be protected from even more destructive forms of use ... and pastoralism and trophy hunting can coexist quite admirably.

I see this as an extremely positive development overall.

Fujotupu says there is widespread overgrazing. Maybe. I don't know. Show me the data. But if so, there are ways to regulate that ... and its just too important an issue to dismiss with the word poppycock.

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Fujotupu says there is widespread overgrazing. Maybe. I don't know. Show me the data. But if so, there are ways to regulate that ... and its just too important an issue to dismiss with the word poppycock.

There is no data available for overgrazing - not in Tanzania anyway and the Maasai, Wakwavi and Wagogo are the main groups responsible for unsustainablecattle husbandry - please do not confuse this issue with cattle breeding on your side of the fence.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:
[ cattle rearing nomads have invaded areas beyond their originally designated borders in search of virgin pastures.

"Virgin Pastures" Far and few between.
It is my understanding that a big portion of the Cattle and other Stock is just a "status symbol".
Is this true?

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Originally posted by fujotupu:

quote:

Fujotupu says there is widespread overgrazing. Maybe. I don't know. Show me the data. But if so, there are ways to regulate that ... and its just too important an issue to dismiss with the word poppycock.

There is no data available for overgrazing - not in Tanzania anyway and the Maasai, Wakwavi and Wagogo are the main groups responsible for unsustainable cattle husbandry - please do not confuse this issue with cattle breeding on your side of the fence.

The ecological rationale behind pastoralism is that it mimics the wildlife migrations which coevolved with the grasslands. In other words, the grasses need the wildlife as much as the wildlife need the grasses. Intermittent intensive grazing is part of the process (whether by wildlife or cattle). Alan Savory did considerable work on this.

Surely the Maasai, Wakwavi and Wagogo have practiced sustainable pastoralism for millenia. Are they overgrazing now to the point of unsustainability. I suppose so ... but as I said, that can be regulated. But its still a much better form of land-use than intensive agriculture which, unlike pastorlism, cannot coexist with wildlife. I see it as a buffer against development - which is a good thing.

Tribal pastoralists have every right to exist ... and they can coexist with and benefit from trophy hunting. And the government has the responsibility to regulate their activities.

When talking about competing "rights" on the African continent there is a repeating "failure to communicate". Since the hunting ban in Kenya in 1977 lifted the last barrier between pastoralists and the National Parks, it has been one long conflict with Rangers spending almost all of their time forcibly evicting pastoralists from the remaining protected areas and trying to catch the poachers, who are frequently the same people. Yesterday's "traditional hunter's" are today's poachers. Yesterday's pastoralists are today's conservation area squatters.

Even a sketchy knowledge of what is happening in Northern Kenya will bear this out. The Meru Conservation Area is now threatened.

I have yet to see any African community, or group, or political party, or religious sect exercise voluntary restraint, especially when the restraints are the product of Western values. Protecting wildlife is a Western value, not an African value, and a very recent one at that. It is my opinion that most black Africans see conservation areas as white men's playgrounds with little or no advantages to them.

I have never seen anything, on any level, well regulated in Africa.

I have worked continuously in and on African development since 1977, so my experience may be more limited than some.

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Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:
[ cattle rearing nomads have invaded areas beyond their originally designated borders in search of virgin pastures.

"Virgin Pastures" Far and few between.
It is my understanding that a big portion of the Cattle and other Stock is just a "status symbol".
Is this true?

By "virgin pasture": land that hasn't yet been sent to hell.

Status symbol?......True - a Maasai's wealth is judged by the number of cattle he owns (walking bank account).

SteveGL:

25/30 years back the Maasai population and the number of cattle were pretty much in proportion. Today the same populations have exploded and with everyone wanting his own herd/s of animals (cows buy wives in their culture)the land just isn't enough any more.
The more wives they own the more children they will have (hopefully girls, who will then be sold for even more cows)and so forth.
The Maasai, Wakwavi, wagogo etc. don't give a damn about the wildlife - the water right are for their cows as is the grazing - woe betide the Lion that takes a cow (the whole pride gets poisoned - this topic has already been discussed in previous threads).
Trying to be logical on such issues in this part of the world is like flogging a dead horse.
Ever been to Maasailand? - those who have will have noticed the effects of overgrazing, deforestation, failed subsistence farming projects, man-made barriers preventing/hampering movement of migratory animals, bomas (Maasai villages)everywhere; I could go on forever......"Serengeti Shall not Die"?........Hmmmm, I wonder!

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:

By "virgin pasture": land that hasn't yet been sent to hell.
[/QUOTE]

Exactly why I noted "Far and few between" and getting worse fast.

SteveGI

These indigenous populations are their and our own worst enemies.

It's them that kill the lions at every opportunity by any and all means possible.

It's them that own the cattle and other livestock that cause the overgrazing.

It's them that either allow or take part in the clearing of trees for the massive amount of illegal charcoal burning in their areas that is VERY rapidly turning what was very good game habitat into a completely sterile desert environment.

For example, take a drive along that main road that passes through Mto Wa Mbu and you'll find bloody great sacks of charcoal for sale every few hundred yards (often much closer that that!) and these go on and on and on for miles and miles and miles...... and remember that every single piece of that charcoal is made from trees that have been cut down in each local area.... and each tree has taken decades at least to grow. That destruction rate simply cannot be maintained without severe and permanent damage to the local environment.

It's them that having completely stuffed their own environment that will then hold out their upturned palm to us and plead for help.

Once the trees and the grass are gone, they're gone forever and large areas have already gone that way..

If you want an example of this, take a trip up to Mto Wa Mbu. Even if you set aside that the entire area (which incidentally, is massive) was a game rich paradise when Ruark and the others hunted there...... hell, even when I first hunted there, it was helluva good. - The last time I hunted there, one could drive for well over an hour without seeing a single blade of grass or a single leaf and the dust storms were so severe, we had to stop because we couldn't see a foot in front of our faces or even breath without wrapping a shemagh around our face.

Give it another few short years and those tribal pastorialists you speak so fondly about will have fucked the entire area up completely and turned the entire region into a permanent desert and then it's your tax dollars that will be keeping them alive.

Sometimes it's an attitude problem.

What you have in many african cultures is an all too typical case of "tragedy of the commons":

http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Rural africans have been thrust from the stone age into the moden era in less than 100 years. And they haven't yet gotten the memo that many of thier traditional ways of life are over.

There used to be many aspects of thier traditional way of life that kept the human and cattle populations in check (inter-tribal warfare, lack of modern firearms for hunting, etc...)

The world has moved on and they are trying to carry on as if nothing has changed.

Not entierly thier fault, because every western do gooder in Africa is filling thier heads about thier 'rights' to thier traditional way of life.

And none of this is helped by the Africans in power who seem hell bent on doing everything bad that they accused the west of doing to them - to thier own people.