Villagers want access to Loliondo controlled area
DAILY NEWS Reporter
Daily News; Friday,February 29, 2008 @00:03


RESIDENTS of eight villages in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region, which surround Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), have voiced their dissatisfaction over the management of resources around the area.

Speaking to the press in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the villagers’ representatives alleged that the District Commissioner was obstructing them from carrying out economic activities in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area which is used by Ortelo Business Cooperation (OBC).

They said that last year the DC’s office ordered the villagers to stop undertaking activities inside the controlled area and directed those living inside the area to vacate. The villagers asked the DC to stop his decision in a letter number DC/NGOr/C.15/5/120, of January 31 2008, banning them from carrying out economic activities around the area.

Moreover, the villagers alleged that workers of the company (OBC) had been intimidating them. The workers, they alleged, killed a fellow villager, one Molonget Konerei. They lamented that the workers who had on several times beaten up villagers seemed to be above the law as the local government there had taken no action. The villagers asked the government not to extend the company’s contract as it was not only violating human rights but also causing massive environmental destruction in the game area.

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economic activities

That would be grazing cattle and poaching?

Not necessarily. I can't speak for that particular area and maybe BwanaMich can shed more light on that particular area, but in other areas up there, there is now a lot of illegal wood cutting/charcoal burning that is making the locals money, but totally devestating some areas.

There's also a few other activities that one could easily interpret as infringing on hunting operations in some of GCAs up there.

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Originally posted by Gator1:

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economic activities

That would be grazing cattle and poaching?

+ farming, building more homes, Wood/ charcoal collecting, mining ect.