Land Justice &
Community Organizing
Working For The Reclamation Of Maasailand
Land Is Livelihood For Our Community
Olosho le Maa, the Maasai community, cannot exist apart from Maasailand. Our destiny, survival, and imperative are to coexist with wildlife, share forests, water, and pasture with other communities under scarcity conditions, and live in ways that sustain and regenerate the land.
We seek the return of occupied land to implement the land management strategies drawn from our cultural knowledge to rebuild the health of our ecosystems and communities. As occupied land is returned to Olosho le Maa, we can employ limited agriculture where appropriate and redesign the landscape around schools and water sources, all with the awareness of where wildlife lives and migrates. The future of the wildlife-rich areas of East Africa is dependent on the Maasai people applying our strategies of coexistence to changing conditions. That is our vision.
The past three decades we've focused on...
Restoration and Protection of Traditional Lands
Since 1987, MERC helped return one hundred and forty-five thousand acres of stolen grazing lands to 92 Maasai families, stopped a four hundred acre golf course near the Maasai Mara Game preserve and opposed large-scale commercial projects including dams, agriculture and mining.
First Pan-African Symposium on Non-Consumptive Wildlife Conservation
In 1997, MERC organized the first Pan-African Symposium of Non-Consumptive Approaches to Wildlife Conservation. The conference attracted representatives of Indigenous peoples, governmental agencies, conservation groups, and policy experts from twelve African nations. Together, they developed a common position document to guide international conservation and opposed commercial use of wildlife and other natural resources. The Pan African Wildlife Conservation Network (PAWCONET) was established to represent the collective interests of Africa’s environment and wildlife.
Anti-hunting Campaign
When the Kenya Wildlife Service proposed to legalize trophy hunting in Kenya in 1994, MERC launched a successful anti-hunting campaign to block the legislation.
Community-based Anti-poaching Program
In 1997, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES) permitted ivory trade in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, resulting in renewed poaching of elephants in East Africa. MERC organized a grassroots-level anti-poaching program in which Maasai villages monitored and reported poaching activities to authorities.
Suspension of an Environmentally Devastating Hydro Project
MERC worked successfully with the World Bank to suspend a project that would have flooded thousands of acres of Maasailand which were considered to be “unpopulated” according to Kenyan population data.
Loliondo Report
MERC researched and released a report that gained international attention and led to the termination of an illegal poaching operation in Loliondo, Tanzania, by exposing environmental and human rights abuses.
Community Water Projects
MERC has facilitated community owned water projects in Maasailand for two decades, most recently through collaboration with Rotary International which has funded four large scale projects in rural areas.
Lawsuit to protect the Mau Forest
MERC has participated in a variety of ways and contexts for over 30 years for the conservation of the Mau Forest, traditional Maasailand, and prevention of deforestation that threatens the entire Mara ecosystem.
Human/Wildlife Conflict Resolution Program
The Human/Wildlife Conflict Resolution Program in Amboseli is a partnership between MERC, Kenyan Wildlife Services, the Elephant Trust, the Olgulului-Olalarashi Group Ranch, formed to resolve conflicts between wildlife and communities around Amboseli National Park.
