Empty the Land · Episode 7 of 12 · 23 min
Evicted for Conservation: The Maasai, the Batwa, and the Ogiek
The idea that nature is purest with no people in it has emptied more land in the last fifty years than most wars. This 'fortress conservation' removes the people who often made the landscape. The episode follows the Maasai of Loliondo and Ngorongoro in Tanzania, the Batwa of Kahuzi-Biega in Congo and the Ogiek of Kenya, and includes the steelman: biodiversity loss is real, but evidence favors conservation with resident peoples.
Who's who
- Samia Suluhu HassanPresident of Tanzania whose government pressed the Maasai relocation
- Musa IyombeChaired the presidential commission reporting on Ngorongoro relocation
- Mark DowieJournalist whose Conservation Refugees named the phenomenon
- Stephen GarnettLead author of a 2018 study mapping Indigenous lands and conservation priorities
Where it happens
- Ngorongoro Conservation Area, TanzaniaHome to about 100,000 Maasai under a relocation program
- Loliondo, TanzaniaAbout 1,500 square kilometers demarcated in 2022
- Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of the CongoPark from which the Batwa were expelled
- Mau Forest, Kenya+1 more episodeOgiek homeland subject to repeated evictions
- Yellowstone National Park, United States1872 model of uninhabited wilderness
Timeline
- 1872Yellowstone established as the first national park
- 1959Ngorongoro Conservation Area created as a multiple-use zone
- 2017African Court rules Kenya violated the Ogiek's rights
- June 2022Tanzania demarcates Loliondo amid live fire
- January 2025World Bank cancels $150 million Tanzania tourism project
- December 2025African Court issues first-ever compliance judgment against Kenya
Still debated
No verified worldwide count of conservation displacement exists. Tanzania calls the Ngorongoro relocation voluntary, while Human Rights Watch and the government's own commission point to coercion through defunded services.