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How German government funds and Tanzanian conservation agencies fuel the Serengeti land grab

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OLOLOSOKWAN, Tanzania — Just days after rangers from Serengeti National Park confiscated Lankenua Sainguran’s cattle and pushed her family into poverty, the German ambassador to Tanzania ceremonially handed over the keys to new facilities for the park’s conservation authorities. While pictures were taken and handshakes exchanged, 70 kilometers (43 miles) away on the outskirts of the park, Serengeti rangers were organizing and funding a massive eviction operation, burning 185 Maasai homes and leaving 6,800 people homeless. Sainguran, whose name was changed for security reasons, still remembers the day, she said. Columns of smoke rose into the sky and shouts filled the air. For her and many Maasai pastoralists who roamed these lands with their livestock like their ancestors did, the violence in August 2017 in Loliondo upended their lives. Over the past 15 years, the Tanzanian government has forcibly displaced thousands of Maasai from their ancestral lands to establish new nature and hunting reserves along the eastern border of Serengeti National Park, called the Pololeti and Loliondo game controlled areas. At the same time, it launched a relocation program for the voluntary relocation of Maasai from the iconic Ngorongoro Conservation Area. But these plans included cutting funding for schools and healthcare centers to pressure Maasai residents into “voluntary” relocation to a village 600 km (370 mi) away, reported Human Rights Watch. This investigation has found that the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), an international conservation NGO that receives funding from the German government, funded and equipped the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA)…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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