SAVE MASAI LAND, CULTURE AND ANIMALS
- by: Moses Ole Kipelian
- recipient: THE MAASAI OF TANZANIA AND KENYA
40,000 Maasai face eviction from their traditional grazing lands in Northern Tanzania to make way for a "wildlife corridor" that an Emirate hunting company, whose clients reportedly include Prince Andrew and the Jordanian royal family, will be permitted to shoot game animals on.The Tanzanian government has ordered the Maasai to vacate 15,000 square kilometres, ostensibly for conservation reasons, to create a “wildlife corridor” from the Serengeti but one in which OBC and its clients will be free to shoot.
Hunting is big business in Tanzania. Promoted by the government as a cornerstone of their conservation strategy, hunting firms earn millions of dollars from rich clients who want to shoot Lions, Leopards and Elephants. The government makes money from the permits and some of that money is then recycled to pay for conservation measures.
The Maasai claim they are equally important to Tanzania’s economy. To many they are the very image of Africa’s wild places, clad in brightly-coloured blankets the semi-nomadic warrior-herdsmen adorn posters and tourist brochures throughout Tanzania but they are under pressure like never before. They rarely hunt, leave no pollution and when their cattle have grazed one area they move elsewhere, allowing the land to recover.
As they are squeezed into ever smaller areas though it becomes harder and harder for them to find new grazing land. Meanwhile hunting companies and other tourism ventures are allocated more and more space.
I'm a Maasai, like my father and my grandfather, we inhabit this land since 1976, this is our land.Maasai are pastoralists represent the highest degree of pastoral specialization in the Eastern-Sudanic region of East Africa.However, also combine livestock herding with other economic activities such as cultivation, trade, and gathering. Because of our dependence on natural resources to sustain livestock and human populations (such as natural watering sites, grazing areas, agricultural land, and drought reserves), many of our groups that historically depended on community grazing structures and local, opportunistic agriculture suffered economically when we are forced onto smaller parcels of settled land. This conflict arose as colonial, and later local governments began instituting land reform programs that transformed Maasai lands in Kenya and Tanzania into group ranches, privatized settler farms, national parks, game reserves and hunting areas. My name is Alfred Oseur Kipelian. I'm from the family of beloved cattle, I grew up with animals and love them very much.The Maasai, Africa’s most famous tribe, fear they face a future as “conservation refugees” in their own land.
Please, stand with us to help us stop this injustice from happening, let's join our forces to have president Kikwete rethink his decision and be as well on the Maasai's side.
Sign PetitionSign PetitionHunting is big business in Tanzania. Promoted by the government as a cornerstone of their conservation strategy, hunting firms earn millions of dollars from rich clients who want to shoot Lions, Leopards and Elephants. The government makes money from the permits and some of that money is then recycled to pay for conservation measures.
The Maasai claim they are equally important to Tanzania’s economy. To many they are the very image of Africa’s wild places, clad in brightly-coloured blankets the semi-nomadic warrior-herdsmen adorn posters and tourist brochures throughout Tanzania but they are under pressure like never before. They rarely hunt, leave no pollution and when their cattle have grazed one area they move elsewhere, allowing the land to recover.
As they are squeezed into ever smaller areas though it becomes harder and harder for them to find new grazing land. Meanwhile hunting companies and other tourism ventures are allocated more and more space.
I'm a Maasai, like my father and my grandfather, we inhabit this land since 1976, this is our land.Maasai are pastoralists represent the highest degree of pastoral specialization in the Eastern-Sudanic region of East Africa.However, also combine livestock herding with other economic activities such as cultivation, trade, and gathering. Because of our dependence on natural resources to sustain livestock and human populations (such as natural watering sites, grazing areas, agricultural land, and drought reserves), many of our groups that historically depended on community grazing structures and local, opportunistic agriculture suffered economically when we are forced onto smaller parcels of settled land. This conflict arose as colonial, and later local governments began instituting land reform programs that transformed Maasai lands in Kenya and Tanzania into group ranches, privatized settler farms, national parks, game reserves and hunting areas. My name is Alfred Oseur Kipelian. I'm from the family of beloved cattle, I grew up with animals and love them very much.The Maasai, Africa’s most famous tribe, fear they face a future as “conservation refugees” in their own land.
Please, stand with us to help us stop this injustice from happening, let's join our forces to have president Kikwete rethink his decision and be as well on the Maasai's side.
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