By ADAM IHUCHA -- Indigenous
Maasai and Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) could be headed for a
land dispute that is likely to affect a multi-million-dollar tourism trade in
the area.
The Maasai community
is up in arms against NCAA over what they termed as a ‘secret move’ by
authorities to lease prime highlands within the fragile ecosystem to private
developers.
As a result, the
community has threatened to disrupt tourism activities should the NCAA go ahead
with its plans.
NCAA handles nearly 500,000 tourists per annum, generating
nearly $32 million (about Sh50 billion).
Traditional leaders
claim that the NCAA has secretly ceded both Ngorienito and Alalam Engop premier
wildlife breeding grounds and corridors located in Oloirobi and Irmisigiyo
villages respectively to investors to construct the tourist hotel.
A traditional leader
Chief Francis Ole Siapa, told a press conference in Ngorongoro that the leased
areas also serve as crucial pastureland, sustaining nearly 60,000 livestock.
“We learnt about
this land transaction on June 24, this year and indeed when we visited the
areas, we were surprised to see beacons bearing N/M 10, meaning they belonged
to a private developer,” Mr Siapa explained.
However, NCAA senior
public relations manager Adam Akiyoo allayed the fears. He explained that no
hotel construction would take place within Ngorongoro conservation area without
environmental impact assessment (EIA).
“For example, NCAA
recently blocked the construction of a hotel at Lomunyi after an EIA showed
that the area is a breeding ground for rhinos and sanctuary to indigenous trees
which cannot be sacrificed for a hotel erection,” he said. He said the
community would never be kept in the dark over such plans.
According to Mr
Siapa, should the hotel construction continue, it would not only disrupt
crucial wildlife breeding grounds, but also corridors that link the Ngorongoro
area and the Great Serengeti National Park.
The community fears that the hotels erection would
also reduce the grazing land for thousands of livestock, the only source of
their livelihood, since the law doesn’t allow them to farm within the
conservation area.
“We are extremely worried the construction of
hotels would constrain our nomadic lifestyle, but more seriously the move could
ruin water sources,” Mr Siapa noted.
He vowed that should the government fails to take
any serious action, they would deploy Maasai warriors anytime soon at the two
areas to block any development.
“We are not ready to see Ngorongoro dying under our
watch. The way we see tourism undertaking overrides other interests of
conservation and the community’s welfare,” the chief stressed.
The NCAA is legally bound to oversee conservation,
tourism and take care the Maasai population living within the conservation.
However, the issue comes hardly two months after
President Jakaya Kikwete banned the construction of more hotels in the World
heritage site of Ngorongoro Crater, one of key features in northern tourism
circuit, over conservation grounds.
The world's largest unbroken volcanic caldera,
which falls under the jurisdiction of the NCAA, is currently under pressure as
investors scramble to build hotels.
As a result, few years’ back, UNESCO raised the red
flag against the NCA ecology, citing increased human activities such as hotels,
cultivation, humans and livestock populations, within the fragile ecosystem as
the major threat to the World heritage property.
"To protect the ecosystem as well as the
crater's international status as world heritage site, there will be no more
construction of new hotels within the crater” Mr Kikwete said, adding that any
investors with an interest to build such facilities should do it outside the
area.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area was
established in 1959 by Ordinance No 413 of 1959 as a multiple land use area,
designated to promote the conservation of natural resources, safeguard the
interests of NCA indigenous residents and promote tourism.
NCA is a unique protected area in the whole
of Africa where conservation of natural resources is integrated with human
development.
Available statistics indicate that the 8,292
square kilometers of NCA has a human population of over 87,000 people, 13,650
head of cattle, and 19,305 goats and sheep, making the area overpopulated.
NCAA expert fear that increased human and
livestock population, coupled with activities, would put pressure on the
fragile ecology of the area, which is famous for natural and cultural heritage
sites.
These include the Ngorongoro crater, Olduvai,
and Laetoli archaeological sites, montane forests, and several crater lakes.
They say NCA, one of the leading tourist's
attractions in the country, can support only 25,000 people if it is to remain
ecologically stable for many years to come.
Called the eighth wonder of the world and
stretching across some 8,300 sq km, the NCA in northern Tanzania boasts a blend
of landscapes, wildlife, people and archaeology that is unsurpassed in Africa.
Ngorongoro Crater is one of the world's greatest
natural spectacles; its magical setting and abundant wildlife never fail to
enthrall visitors, compelling UNESCO to declare the sanctuary as the ‘Natural
World Heritage Site', way back in 1979.
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