Hadzabe lose land to hunting firm

22 Aug 2006
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha

The remaining home of the Hadzabe ethnic group, a surviving relic of the hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, has been hived off and ceded to a foreign tourist hunting firm.

The Lower Yaeda area in Mbulu District, Manyara Region, has allegedly been ceded to an Abu Dhabi-based hunting company known as Tanzania UAE Safari Ltd, which has applied to appropriate a wide variety of wildlife in the Lake Eyasi Basin for commercial tourist hunting.

The firm has reportedly applied for the remaining part of the Lake Eyasi basin in Karatu District to bring it under its commercial hunting ambit.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian yesterday, the Chairman of Mbulu District Council, Damian Isaay, acknowledged that the area had indeed been leased out to an investor from Abu Dhabi.

``I don`t have details about the contract, but all I can say is, it\'s true that the area has been given out to an investor from Abu Dhabi,\" Isaay said in a telephone interview.

Chairman of Karatu District Council Lazaro Titus Maasai confirmed that his authority had received an application from the hunting firm regarding the remaining part of Lake Eyasi basin.

``We have put on hold the firm\'s application pending, among otherthings, submission of additional information to confirm the authenticity of the company,`` Maasai said.

According to the chairman, the application from the Middle East firm did not provide sufficient information to enable the council to make a decision.

The councillors, therefore, demanded additional information on the firm`s profile, objectives, contract desired and its wildlife utilisation plan should it consider the company`s application.

Maasai said the councillors were further apprehensive about the benefits the surrounding communities would get from the exploitation of Lake Eyasi basin\'s natural resources and a guarantee that the firm would exploit resources well.

``Last, but not least, we wanted thorough explanation on the fate of Hadzabe, the hunters and gatherers of the 21st Century whose livelihoods depend on the natural resources in Lake Eyasi Basin,`` Maasai said.

As a result, the proposal is due to be tabled again in the forthcoming Karatu full council meeting next month, where the councillors would thoroughly deliberate it.

Social scientists expressed fears recently that the Hadzabe would become extinct in a few years as a result of pressure on their habitat.

The Hadzabe occupy a far smaller territory to the south of Ngorongoro, in the escarpments of the Rift Valley and the valleys around Lake Eyasi.

The area is home to a wide array of wildlife and to a range of flora that includes the magnificent baobab trees of Africa, which host bees from which the Hadzabe collect honey.

The Hadzabe traditional way of life, according to social scientists, has come under pressure to adapt to modern ways of living.

In Tanzania, the Hadzabe inhabit the acacia forests and scrubland around Lake Eyasi in Arusha and Meatu in Shinyanga for over 10,000 years.

According to a just-concluded research by Oxfam, the Hadzabe, who survive on fruit-gathering and hunting wild animals for food face extinction as their habitats have been converted into conservation areas and agricultural land.

``The situation is very critical for the tribe, whose population does not exceed 3,000,`` reads part of the Oxfam report circulated to stakeholders in Arusha recently.

``The community is virtually under threat from commercial extinction of the resources under their jurisdiction, which are also their home and the basis of their livelihood, has been converted into farms and conservation areas, the study added.

The researchers, however, blamed the situation on poor government policies, which they said favour conservation of huge chunks of land for wildlife hunting at the expense of indigenous people.

``We in turn owe groups like the Hadzabe the chance to perpetuate their way of life, not simply because they add to the cultural and technological diversity of the planet, but because their lifestyle, in its ancient simplicity, has a huge amount to teach us about the technological, environmental and spiritual arts of sustainability in our all-consuming age`` the researchers observed.

* SOURCE: Guardian

Just a brief follow up ..

This is a short excerp from a very long article which may or may not be related to this new situation as outlined in the Guardian ..

I dont know if the issue was quashed and the new company has sprung up under a different name, or it may be totally unrelated

---------------------------
In 1992, the administration of the former president Ali Hassan Mwinyi granted the entire Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) as a Hunting concession to the Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), a game-Hunting firm based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Government issued a 10-year Hunting permit, under the controversial agreement, to the Brigadier Mohammed Abdulrahim Al-Ali, believed to be a member of the royal family of the UAE, of Abu Dhabi in the UAE who owns (OBC). The grabbed land is a birthright land of thousands of villagers of Arash, Soitsambu, Oloipiri, Ololosokwan, Loosoito and Oloirien villages of Loliondo.
------------------------------------

Cheers, Peter AKA Shirlock Holmes (-:

Unrelated. Different company and different concession. However, this application was originally declined at district and village level. I guess petro-$$$ open up doors that were formerly closed