Restitution

Over 70,000 Maasai in Loliondo, Tanzania Face Renewed Eviction Threat to Make Way for Safari Tourism and Trophy Hunting

On 11 January 2022 the Arusha Regional Commissioner met with village chairmen and councilors in Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District to inform them of the government’s decision to designate the 1500 km2 area of their legally registered village land as a wildlife corridor. If carried out, the creation of a wildlife corridor would result in the Maasai losing ancestral land vital to sustain their pastoral livelihoods.

This latest threat is a continuation of past efforts to evict Maasai from their land in Loliondo to allow for safari tourism and trophy hunting. The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Otterlo Business Company (OBC) — which runs hunting excursions for the country’s royal family and their guests — will reportedly control commercial hunting in the area despite the company’s past involvement in several violent evictions of the Maasai, burning of homes, and the killing of thousands of rare animals in the area.

“That the Maasai are once again facing eviction to please the UAE royal family shows the Tanzanian government continues to prioritize tourism revenues at the expense of the Indigenous pastoralists who have sustainably stewarded the area for generations,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute and author of Losing the Serengeti, a 2018 report from the Institute that extensively documented OBC’s impact on the area.

Past violent government-led evictions of Maasai from Loliondo in 2009, 2013, and 2017 led four villages to seek recourse in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). In September 2018, the EACJ granted an injunction, which prohibited the Tanzanian government from evicting the villagers, seizing their livestock, destroying property, or engaging in harassment against Maasai communities living in Ololosokwan, Oloirien, Kirtalo, and Arash villages. The renewed attempt to seize this same 1,500 km2 of land appears to be in blatant violation of the injunction and legal action has been taken at the EACJ, where the village chairmen have applied for urgent stop orders.

In response, thousands of Maasai gathered to protest on 13–14 January 2022 in Oloirien village in Loliondo. All village chairs and ward councilors from villages with land in the 1,500 km2 signed a protest statement, and so did customary leaders and women’s representatives. They are adamant that they will not leave until the decision is reversed. At great risk to their personal safety given the Tanzanian government’s past intolerance of dissent, Maasai have remained in the area despite a heavy presence of Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) rangers. “The Maasai courageously protesting to protect their land, urgently needs international attention and solidarity,” added Mittal.

Additionally, in a separate but closely related matter, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) has submitted a budget request to begin short-term implementation of a relocation plan that’s eventually meant to affect over 80,000 residents starting by the end of February 2022. As previously exposed in The Looming Threat of Eviction, the government’s multiple land-use management (MLUM) and resettlement plan — created with heavy influence from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) — threatens the continued survival of the Maasai living in the NCA through increased livelihood restrictions.

“The government’s own reports acknowledge that the Indigenous in the NCA successfully protect wildlife from poaching. Removing us will only hurt the health of wildlife we have co-existed alongside for millennium,” stated a traditional Maasai leader living in the NCA.

A petition run by Rainforest Rescue with the Oakland Institute has already garnered over 100,000 signatures, supporting the demands of Maasai communities in the NCA to the UNESCO WHC to stop the planned evictions and grant them autonomy over future land use decisions. With the failure of UNESCO WHC to take action, the Tanzanian government continues to trample the rights of the Maasai. In light of this impending calamity, the Oakland Institute echoes calls made by local communities for international support and an immediate end to displacement and evictions

Original appeal

GENEVA (15 June 2022) – UN human rights experts* have expressed grave concerns about continuous encroachment on traditional Maasai lands and housing, accompanied by a lack of transparency in, and consultation with the Maasai Indigenous Peoples, during decision making and planning. This trend most recently culminated in security forces’ violence against the Maasai Indigenous Peoples who were protecting their ancestral land in the Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District, in northern Tanzania.

“We are deeply alarmed at reports of use of live ammunition and tear gas by Tanzanian security forces on 10 June 2022, reportedly resulting in about 30 people sustaining minor to serious injuries from live bullets and the death of a police officer,” the experts said.

According to information received, on 6 June, following a closed-door meeting, the Arusha Regional Commissioner announced the decision to turn 1,500 square kilometres of 4,000 square kilometres of designated village land comprising the Loliondo Game Controlled Area into a game reserve. The change would imply evictions from Ololosokwan, Oloirien, Kirtalo, and Arash villages, which could displace up to 70,000 Indigenous Maasai. The decision came despite a 2018 injunction by the East African Court of Justice and the fact that on 22 June the Court is expected to rule on an a legal challenge to the eviction of the Maasai from their land in this area.

On 7 and 8 June, around 700 members of security forces were deployed into five locations in the area, where they installed tented camps to start demarcating the 1,500 square kilometres. On 9 June the police placed markers to delineate the game reserve, but local Maasai people removed them and remained overnight to guard the site. When security forces returned at daybreak, they started firing live bullets and lobbed teargas at the Maasai.

Another situation has been unfolding in the adjacent Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where authorities have reportedly been advancing plans to evict an estimated 80,000 Maasai from their ancestral lands. Maasai representatives said that there had been no genuine efforts to consult them and that they have learned details of the planned eviction from leaked documents. Only on 9 February the National Assembly held a special session discussing the right of the Maasai to live in the area, which has been guaranteed in law since the 1950s. The Government stated there are no plans to forcibly evict the Maasai but there have been reports of an increased police presence and harassment in Maasai villages, advising locals to “volunteer” for relocation because they would have no choice but to move.

“Under such conditions, it seems impossible to guarantee that the relocation of the Maasai from the area will not amount to forced evictions and arbitrary displacement under international law,” noted the UN experts.

“We are concerned at Tanzania’s plans to displace close to 150,000 Maasai from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo without their free, prior and informed consent, as required under international human rights law and standards. This will cause irreparable harm, and could amount to dispossession, forced eviction and arbitrary displacement prohibited under international law”, the UN experts warned today. “It could jeopardize the Maasai’s physical and cultural survival in the name of ‘nature conservation’, safari tourism and trophy hunting, ignoring the relationship that the Maasai have traditionally had with their lands, territories and resources and their stewardship role in protecting biodiversity.”

“We call on the Tanzanian Government to immediately halt plans for relocation of the people living in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and begin consultations with the Maasai Indigenous Peoples, including direct contact with the Ngorongoro Pastoral Council, to jointly define current challenges to environmental conservation and best avenues to resolve them, while maintaining a human rights-based approach to conservation,” said the experts.

They also urged the Tanzanian authorities to demonstrate transparency by accepting requests for external scrutiny, including responding to country visit requests by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2010, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its cultural value. Recalling that UN bodies and agencies have a responsibility to uphold human rights in their work, the experts have asked the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) to reiterate to the Government of Tanzania that plans concerning the Ngorongoro Conservation area comply with relevant human rights standards. The experts recalled that in July 2021 the WHC had recommended that Tanzania invite a WHC Advisory Mission to consider its plans for the area.

The experts have previously raised their concerns on this issue with the Government of Tanzania, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and International Council on Monuments and Sites. The experts appreciate the ongoing dialogue with these international agencies.

ENDS

*The experts: Mr Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Ms Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons;Mr Francisco Cali Tzay,Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Mr Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Mr. Ian Fry, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Ms Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; Mr Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Mr Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Mr David R. Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment.

Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council`s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures` experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

POriginal statement

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