"They turned the area where I lived into the Pololeti hunting reserve," says 36-year-old Nesikar Daudi, now living in Engare Sero. In 2022, the Tanzanian government established the Pololeti Game Reserve, and designated it exclusively for hunting and tourism. Thousands of people, like Nesikar were directly affected or even forcibly evicted. "We suffered a lot because of this takeover. We lost our livestock, and bulldozers demolished our homes," Nesikar says. She, and hundreds of others, relocated to Lake Natron."
"Since the 1990s, the country has seen a 20% expansion of protected areas. But Maasai lawyer and activist Joseph Oleshengay says the government's strategy in recent years has little to do with conserving nature. "It is essentially a mechanism for land dispossession," he says. Behind the rhetoric of environmental protection, he argues, stand economic interests linked to tourism and trophy hunting."
Ol'doinyo Lengai rises near Engare Sero in northern Tanzania above Lake Natron, a salt lake that supports about 75% of the global lesser flamingo population. Maasai communities consider parts of the surrounding land ancestral and rely on it for livestock and homes. In 2022 the government designated the Pololeti Game Reserve exclusively for hunting and tourism, triggering thousands of displacements and forcible evictions. Evictees report livestock losses and demolished homes and many relocated to Lake Natron. Since the 1990s protected areas expanded by roughly 20%. Activists say reclassification under public-interest laws enables land dispossession without community consultation and serves tourism and hunting interests.
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