Tanzania will evict thousands of members of the Maasai community from their traditional lands if it goes ahead with plans to create a hunting park, campaigners claimed Tuesday.
Global activist group Avaaz alleged Tanzania had ambitions to turn 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) of land in the Loliondo district into a hunting reserve for a company catering to the United Arab Emirates' royal family.
There was no immediate response from the government, which scrapped similar plans for the land, which is next to the world famous Serengeti reserve in September 2013.
However, Avaaz said Maasai community leaders had been told they would be offered a billion Tanzania shillings ($578,000) for their lands, less than $15 each for 40,000 of them to leave.
"The Maasai are the poster-boys to attract tourists to Tanzania, but in their own country they risk becoming the great unwanted," said Alex Wilks, campaign director for Avaaz, which has collected an online petition of 1.7 million names.
"This deal would be disastrous for Tanzania's reputation, for wildlife and for the Maasai."
The land borders the Serengeti national park, where animals cross into neighbouring Kenya's Maasai Mara park following seasonal grazing.
Avaaz said documents it had seen showed that the hunting company hoping to run the proposed park had paid $300,000 in two hunting seasons to kill over 2,700 animals including lion, leopard and buffalo.
Tanzania will evict thousands of members of the Maasai community from their traditional lands if it goes ahead with plans to create a hunting park, campaigners claimed Tuesday.
Global activist group Avaaz alleged Tanzania had ambitions to turn 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) of land in the Loliondo district into a hunting reserve for a company catering to the United Arab Emirates’ royal family.
There was no immediate response from the government, which scrapped similar plans for the land, which is next to the world famous Serengeti reserve in September 2013.
However, Avaaz said Maasai community leaders had been told they would be offered a billion Tanzania shillings ($578,000) for their lands, less than $15 each for 40,000 of them to leave.
“The Maasai are the poster-boys to attract tourists to Tanzania, but in their own country they risk becoming the great unwanted,” said Alex Wilks, campaign director for Avaaz, which has collected an online petition of 1.7 million names.
“This deal would be disastrous for Tanzania’s reputation, for wildlife and for the Maasai.”
The land borders the Serengeti national park, where animals cross into neighbouring Kenya’s Maasai Mara park following seasonal grazing.
Avaaz said documents it had seen showed that the hunting company hoping to run the proposed park had paid $300,000 in two hunting seasons to kill over 2,700 animals including lion, leopard and buffalo.
