Loliondo and Ngorongoro Attacked from Every Angle, and People Have Spoken Up.

Themes: Conservation, FPIC, Indigenous people, Hunting, Human rights, NGOs, Pastoralists

The Tanzanian government must stop threatening and abusing the Maasai of Ngorongoro District, whether it’s for the old “Loliondogate” issue in Loliondo and Sale Division and the hunters’ wish for a “protected area”, or for the even older wish to for the love of tourism money further dispossess and strangle those in Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Now the Arusha RC John Mongella must backtrack on his (the government’s) terrible threat described in the previous blog post.

Mau Forest rehabilitation still overshadowed by forced evictions

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Livlihoods, NGOs, Parks, Poverty

*More than 50,000 people have been forcefully evicted from Kenya’s ecologically important Mau Forest in the past decade. *With few options to relocate, evicted smallholders and others continue to enter the forest in search of grazing and fuel. *The Kenya Water Tower Agency has built electrified fencing, but encroachers have torn sections of this down. *Enlisting evictees to create tree nurseries and support for alternative livelihoods points the way to more constructive approaches.

View from the Termite Mound

Themes: Conservation, FPIC, Human rights, Indigenous people, Pastoralists, Parks, Tourism, Poverty

The Tanzanian government is again preparing to grab grazing land in Loliondo for the benefit of the “investor” and this time it’s the Arusha Regional Commissioner who’s been sent as the messenger. Let’s stop any such plan!

Stealth Game: "Community" Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya

Themes: Conservation, Livlihoods, Indigenous people, Pastoralists, Human rights, Poverty

Stealth Game: “Community” Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya — reveals the devastating impact of privatized and neo-colonial wildlife conservation and safari tourism on Indigenous pastoralist communities.

Fresh atrocities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the name of “security” and “conservation”

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Poverty, Human rights

Over the weekend of 12th-14th November 2021, in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, at least two whole Batwa villages were burnt to the ground, a man was shot dead, two women were shot and injured and at least one woman who was pregnant is still unaccounted for and feared burnt alive in her house. Villagers fled into the forest to hide.

Ndumo Game Reserve:

The complicated balancing act of subsistence farming and nature conservation in KwaZulu-Natal

Themes: Agriculture, Conservation, Human rights, Livlihoods, Parks, Fisheries, Poverty, Poaching

As cultivated fields expand and grazing cattle explore ever further in the Ndumo Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, researchers worry about unresolved efforts to address human poverty while also trying to protect the ever-shrinking spaces left for wildlife and nature conservation.

Press Conference by Ngorongoro Representatives to Respond to the Imposter Lekisongo,

There was a Press Conference by Ngorongoro Representatives to Respond to the Imposter Lekisongo, It’s Over a Year Since the Election Murder that Killed Salula Ngorisiolo, and the DED Works Hard for the Loliondo Police State

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Parks, Pastoralists

The press conference protesting the behaviour of the imposter Lekisongo is old news, maybe a diversion, and I haven’t been able to get much of a background on this individual, or much information what he’s done after being told off. I should have published on 28th October about last year’s election murder, but keep getting delayed and am un-focused. Then there were worries that NCAA were trying to influence the by-election, but now there is a candidate who is a lesser evil (I hope …) and will become MP, since a real by-election won’t be held anyway. When I finally was about to publish this blog post, more worrying information reached me that the new DED (not that the old one was any better …) isn’t lazy at all in his contribution to the Loliondo police state at the service of unethical “investors”, this time the horrible Thomson Safaris.

Deprived of their forests, Uganda’s Batwa adapt their sustainable practices.

Three decades since the Batwa people in Uganda were evicted from their ancestral lands to create national parks, members of the group live in poverty and marginalization at the fringes of society.

Themes: Agriculture, Conservation, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Poverty, Human rights

Lack of land rights and access to natural resources has eroded traditional knowledge in the hunter-gatherer community, especially concerning herbal medicine and endemic plant species. Despite these circumstances, some Batwa groups are adopting new conservation practices involving regenerative agriculture on small plots of land donated to them by the United Organisation of Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU).