Study Site #7 – Loliondo, Tanzania

Background

This  highland  site  identified  with  the  Loita  Maasai  (who  straddle  the  border) lies immediately to the west of the Serengeti National Park and north of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, two of the most significant Protected Areas in the world. Occupied in part by Maasai evicted from the Serengeti at its inception, the area was dedicated to mixed land use, combining pastoralism, agriculture and wildlife protection. It has been the site of significant controversy,  firstly over  the appropriation of grazing lands by the Tanzanian breweries to cultivate barley, secondly over the government’s allocation of lands to the Gulf-state company, Ortello Ltd., used for hunting and Arab tourism. A popular protest by Loliondo Maasai, with national and international supporters, was successful in opposing expansion of this concession, a move combined with threatened eviction of thousands of Maasai from the region. The question  of  how,  given  claims  of  ‘Village’  land  rights,  the  creation  of  hunting  concessions,  and  the embrace by Tanzania of the Wildlife management Area (WMA) model, communities will secure livelihoods that combine local land use, wildlife protection and tourism is a major policy question. One of our partner organizations, Kesho Trust, which has links to the University of Victoria, has been long involved in community development in Loliondo

I-CAN activities

Emmanuel Kileli Leyani just completed his M.A. in Geography at the University of Victoria under the supervision of Prof. Philip Dearden. Emmanuel’s dissertation investigated the incentive-based conservation approach in Loliondo.

In October 2016, Jacques Pollini worked together with Robert Kamakia, Emmanuel Saringe and Sophia Mbere from our partner organization The Pastoralist Livelihoods Support and Empowerment Programme (PALISEP) to conduct a research scoping study focusing on conservation in Magaiduru village, Loliondo Division.