The Words of Salangat ole Mako

On the Run for In Vain Trying to Tell the Truth to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights that Never Came

Themes: Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Pastoralists, Poverty

Salangat ole Mako has in his own words become a – nightly - grass thief in his own land. He is a Maasai pastoralist and a small-scale commercial cultivator of vegetables and fruits in Ololosokwan village in Loliondo. As lobbied for by OBC, that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, 75% of his, and everyone’s, grazing land has brutally and lawlessly been taken by the Tanzanian government for a “protected area”, and then there have been threats of taking his farm. On 25th January, Salangat was waiting in vain for a much shambolic and government co-opted visit by the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights (I hope to very soon post a blog post about this). A brief clip of what he would have wanted to tell the Commission was shared online. The following day the Officer Commanding Ngorongoro District came to Ololosokwan to say that the gathering waiting for the international organization had not had a permit and that Salangat had been talking thrash. Then Salangat received more threats and fled to Kenya.

Community wildlife conservation isn’t always a win-win solution:

The case of Kenya’s Samburu

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Pastoralists, Parks, NGOs

Community-based wildlife conservation is often promoted as a win-win solution. The idea behind this approach is that the people who live close to wildlife can be involved in protecting it and have an interest in doing so. This results in wildlife being protected (a win for global biodiversity) and local people benefiting from conservation through tourism revenues, jobs, or new infrastructure like schools, clinics and water supplies.

This Human Rights Day, Stand With the Maasai to End Fortress Conservation

The colonization of Indigenous lands in the name of conservation has devastated far too many lives and must immediately end.

Themes: CBD, Conservation, FPIC, Human rights, Hunting, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, NGOs, Parks, Pastoralists, Poverty

An Opinion piece by Andy Currier, Research Associate at the Oakland Institute and co-author of Driving Dispossession: The Global Push to “Unlock the Economic Potential of Land”.

Loliondo Bogus Murder Case Dropped after Over Five Months.

While the Horror Worsens with Fake and Forced Land Use Plans

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

The steady decline of Ladakh’s nomadic herders

Themes: Pastoralists, Parks, Livlihoods, Indigenous people, Tourism

Military tensions, ecological concerns and a tourism boom, all threaten to wipe out the Changpa tribe’s traditional occupation.

Amidst Government Terror and Lawlessness, the East African Court Fails to Deliver Justice to the Maasai of Loliondo

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

On 30th September 2022 in Arusha, the East African Court of Justice delivered its ruling in Reference No. 10 of 2017 Ololosokwan Village Council & 3 Others versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Regional court dismisses Maasai eviction case against Tanzania

Rights groups said Friday’s ruling sends a dangerous message that Indigenous peoples can be evicted from their land in the name of conservation.

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

Photo - Maasai rights activists from the Maa Unity Agenda group march to protest outside the Tanzanian high commission in Nairobi, Kenya [File: Ben Curtis/AP]

Bedouin community fear Galilee conservation plan is part of a bid to ‘uproot’ them.

Nature and Parks Authority faces opposition to planned wildlife corridor near Haifa, which environmentalists say is an important part of efforts to protect endangered animals

Themes: Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Pastoralists, Parks, Poverty