Tanzania July 2006 |
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| Embattled Pastoralists in East Africa, (The New Times, 2006-07-12):-It is now barely a few weeks after the eviction of Rwandan pastoralists from Tanzania. The evictions which were instituted along river banks and basins in Mbeya, to the southwest of the country, were reportedly in line with the government's efforts to protect the environment from further degradation. The process, according to Tanzania authorities targets at least 1,000 pastoralists who, combined, have more than two million head of cattle in the Ihefu Basin, which is the major source of the Great Ruaha River that feeds several hydroelectric dams downstream. Apart from being an important water resource, Ihefu is a protected area. It serves as a game reserve, where intensive human activity is not allowed for conservation purposes. According to government statistics, Tanzania has at least 16 million head of cattle. Their search for pasture coupled with human activities - such as reckless tree felling, use of plastic bags, uncontrolled cattle grazing, invasion of reserved forest areas and mountains have been cited as some of the causes of extensive environmental degradation there. It is against this background that the Tanzanian government approached the pastoralists' leaders in February this year and started sensitising them on the need to leave the area. Barely after a month the pastoralists, most of whom had settled in game reserves, including the hills and mountains in eastern and central Tanzania's Eastern Arc as well as Mt Kilimanjaro in the north, were ordered to vacate the land immediately. They have sought refugee in different pastoral areas and grasslands of Rwanda and Uganda. The camps around areas of Mutara and Kibungo near the Rwanda-Tanzania border have become new homes for these displaced persons, with their siblings and a few domestic items like calabashes and wattle mats that they managed to secure. Although in April, Tanzania's vice-president, Ali Shein, announced that the government would take stringent measures to curb environmental degradation, including the eviction of pastoralists. The criteria of eviction is, up to now, not known to the victims who were stripped of their property and forced out of the country they have called home for decades. Indeed the Tanzanian police confirm they are holding more than 1,000 head of cattle but still vow to deal with the owners once they show up. Now, some of the evictees especially those who are still in the camps hardly have relatives either in Rwanda or in neighbouring East African countries. They even do not have essential utensils like saucepans that serve as basic necessities in daily life, meaning they have no source of livelihood, no food, water, health centre and not even a small first aid centre to provide medication to these vulnerable persons living in appalling conditions. And, it is not that these people are suffering because they were ordinary poor families in Tanzania, but they are suffering due to an unbecoming national policy, of a country that took a decision to have all 'foreign' pastoralists forced out of her boundaries without scrutinizing the legality of their citizenship. The Tanzanian government is not bothered by the fact that the biggest number of victims are Rwandans by tribe but Tanzanian by nationality while others are their brothers and sisters; totally Tanzanians by birth, citizenship and nationality. They are only being witch hunted because they speak a foreign language (Kinyarwanda) and not because they belong to a group that owns cattle considered to be destructive creatures in the Tanzania grassland territory. It is also imperative to note that the victims have stayed in Tanzania, married and intermarried and most of them have citizenship but they have also been evicted because their herds of cattle are destroying the "beauty of Tanzania's vast wilderness." The relevant authorities in the trio East African states should work out new strategic plans that would encourage pastoralists in their activities because it is solely through cattle keeping that they derive their livelihoods. Instead of neglecting their woes the best option is to encourage them to de-stock in order to have a limited number of livestock directly proportional to the carrying capacity of the area. In Tanzania, the policy says that every district should plant at least 1.5 million trees every year, governments in East Africa should also put up similar forestation campaigns in pastoral areas by involving pastoralists themselves in compulsory tree-planting programs. It is also imperative that the tree planting campaigns at national levels be rationally supported through sensitization of the pastoralists on the benefits of the activity. Meanwhile the pastoralists efforts should be supplemented by the public especially tobacco and tea farmers among others who use trees as a source of fuel and energy so as to have a formidable strategy to realize an advanced and effective environmental conservation framework. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |