Local Challenges to Global Agendas: Conservation, Economic Liberalization and the Pastoralists' Rights Movement in Tanzania

Abstract

S Since the mid‐1980s, “democratization” and structural adjustment, have been transforming domestic political economies throughout sub‐Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, these processes could significantly alter the terrain in the conflict between local land rights and state wildlife conservation. The situation has become increasingly complex as the parties involved ‐ land‐holders, state and international conservation agencies ‐ are joined by land rights political organizations, domestic conservation groups and foreign capital. The paper focuses on struggles over land and resource rights, specifically on new forms of grassroots political action which has emerged on the question of wildlife conservation in national parks. At the same time, tourism is expanding with an influx of foreign capital. The paper explores the implications of the interactions between these forces.

Partitioned Nature, Privileged Knowledge: Community‐based Conservation in Tanzania

“…However, over the past several decades, Maasai have come to view conservation, and often by association, wildlife, as enemies. These feelings reflect a history of land alienation through conservation, repeated most recently with the eviction of Maasai from the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Northern Tanzania (Brockington, 2001;Brockington and Homewood, 1999;Neumann, 1995;Rogers et al, 1999). The effects of this eviction continue to be felt throughout the Maasai Ecosystem, as evicted herders renegotiate for grazing rights and Maasai land-use strategies spatially readjust to accommodate their needs (Igoe and Brockington, 1999).…”

Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa

“…(Sayers 1933:441) Here, pastoralists are quite literally equated with the fauna as part of the overall spectacle of "wild" Africa, an analogy repeated by conservationists up until the decade of independence (see Neumann 1995b). In this way, as Haraway notes, "primitive" Africans were "consigned to the Age of Mammals, prior to the Age of Man.…”

“…Commonly, projects seek to incorporate the protection of "indigenous" or "customary" land and resource rights within their objectives. For instance, several buffer zone projects or proposals in Tanzania have a land-titling component that overlaps with local (particularly Maasai) efforts to secure customary land rights (AWF 1989;KIPOC 1992;Makombe 1993:24;Mbano et al 1995;Neumann 1995a;Newmark 1993). These proposals are based upon the supposition that titling of land leads to greater security in property rights and greater security will create the conditions for conservation (Oldfield 1988;Cleaver 1993).…”

“…4 As Hodgson points out, in Tanzania a handful of well-educated men have positioned themselves as the representatives of "Maasai" interests to outside donors by virtue of their leadership of indigenous NGOs (1995b). These NGOs, some of which are involved in ICDPs in Tanzania (Neumann 1995a), marginalize the roles of women and usurp male elders' authority in project decision making (Hodgson 1995b). Too often, NGOs demonstrate the same inefficiencies and lack of attention to local needs and aspirations characteristic of state-run projects (Vivian 1994;Korten 1994).…”

“…Colonial powers intervened repeatedly throughout the first half of this century to try to force soil, water, forest, and wildlife conservation techniques on rural cultivators and pastoralists Bassett 1993;Neumann 1992Neumann , 1995bLeach 1994;Hodgson 1995). These initiatives, carried out during the early stages of capitalist penetration on the continent, were frequently premised on changing natural resource tenure systems.…”