"The very survival of the Maasai culture in intricately dependent
on our people's relationship to land."

MERC booth at the CITES Conference 2000

For thousands of years, Maasailand has been a place of cultivated harmony between humans and wildlife. Dependent on productive
grazing lands for their herds of cattle and goats, we Maasai have always been custodians of the natural habitat. Maasai people see
the land itself as a sacred, living entity, a source of medicine and a place of worship to be protected for future generations. The
Maasai neither hunt nor eat wild game. The wildlife of Maasailand has benefited from centuries of Maasai land tenure.

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