Exclusive Safari Tours 'force Tens Of Thousands Of Masai From Land'

Jane Flanagan

Tens of thousands of Masai herders have been evicted and burnt out of their ancestral land in Tanzania to make way for exclusive safari tours, according to the findings of an investigation into environmental tensions in the region.

The east African nation’s government has been prioritising the interests of foreign travel companies over its people and is complicit in the violence and intimidation of Masai communities, the report from the Oakland Institute concluded.

"As tourism becomes one of the fastest-growing sectors within the Tanzanian economy, safari and game park schemes are wreaking havoc on the lives and livelihoods of the Masai," Anuradha Mittal, from the US-based think tank, said.