Rights to Land and Resources in the Enguserosambu Community Forest, Tanzania

This is the story of the Loita Maasai of the Enguserosambu Forest of northern Tanzania. It is a story in progress.The Enguserosambu forest [87,489 ha] is part of the greater Serengeti Ecosystem that is managed by indigenous... [ view full abstract ]

This is the story of the Loita Maasai of the Enguserosambu Forest of northern Tanzania. It is a story in progress.

The Enguserosambu forest [87,489 ha] is part of the greater Serengeti Ecosystem that is managed by indigenous people in Loliondo. The Loita Maasai depend heavily on the forest to support their livestock and provide a variety of forest products integral to their subsistence. Maasai culture, including language, ceremonies and rites of passage, architecture and social organization are deeply embedded in forest-related values. The forest is the collective heart of the Maasai and without it their very identity as Maasai is lost. Over many generations traditional forest management practices and sustainable use have evolved but is now overlain with the government system. That system increasingly constrains and compromises the adaptive management strategies of the Maasai system. Aggressive government sponsored tourism development has generated direct and violent land use conflicts with Maasai pastoralism. On these traditional homelands they have been subject to expulsion, eviction, incarceration and death. Rendered homeless, Maasai have become refugees in their own territory. The consequences on the pastoral economy, food security and the sustainability of the Maasai way of life are severe. A host of external interests compound this threat including increasing demand on resources, institutional and cultural prejudices and poorly understood and conceived adaptive management responses to climate change impacts.

After over a decade of engagement with the Tanzanian government, the Loita Maasai established the Enguserosambu Forest Conservation and Development Trust [EFT].  In 2013 the government granted official permission to the EFT to manage these lands.  Their own local management has the potential to control their vulnerability to the immediate and ongoing external pressures of government and private sector developers, broaden the acceptance of their rights to manage their own resources and achieve the long-term health of their community forest lands.

Currently the EFT is working on fours specific elements in preparation for the development of a comprehensive management plan for the forest: a) the documentation of cultural identity and linkages with the land; b) the acknowledgement of traditional forest management systems and processes; c) the continued capacity building of the management entity created to take responsibility for the planning and management of community forest lands [EFT]; and, d) the regular and intensive monitoring of progress which in itself contributes to the awareness of and strengthening of the commitment to recognize local rights.