Indigenous Stewards of a threatened land

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

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.

Anthropologists believe that the Maasai have lived in the same land for thousands of years. Today, this land is part of the nations of Kenya and Tanzania. An estimated 400,000 Maasai people live here today, with over half residing in Tanzania. In both nations, the Maasai people lack adequate representation in the decisions that affect our land and our livelihoods, and we have been vulnerable to economic marginalization, cultural exploitation, and constant violation of our cultural and human rights.
Until recent years, we have retained much of our traditional way of life. But our culture's survival depends on the survival of the land. As a rural, traditional people whose culture instills a strong code of honesty, many of us have been poorly equipped to defend our rights in the modern legal and economic world. Maasai people have been dispossessed of land, often by powerful, wealthy interests who manipulate land tenure laws to their own advantage.

Between 1978 and 1998, the Maasai lost over 1.5 million acres of land to development, tourist facilities, large-scale farming, and other interests. In particular, the rapid growth of the tourism industry in both Kenya and Tanzania has had a negative impact on the environment and the livelihood of the indigenous Maasai people. The uncontrolled development of modern tourist facilities threatens the ecosystems both within the wildlife reserves and in the adjacent communal Maasai grazing lands.

"As a global community, we all have a role to play to ensure the future of this priceless heritage for the sake of unborn generations."

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