TNRF, UCRT and Maliasili Initiatives have published, From Promise to Performance?: Wildlife Mangement Areas in Northern Tanzania.  The summary provides an overview of findings of two studies recently carried out by TNRF on the current status and performance of three WMAs in northern Tanzania, in Arusha and Manyara regions 

What has been the reaction of the rural producers and other land holders over these demands and actual land acquisitions? What does their reactions means in relation to ongoing land grabbing? While these questions are important this study was motivated by two major concerns.

Tanzania has always been a country in the spotlight over cases of land grabbing for various uses. Over the recent past there has been a lot of information in both print and electronic media of land being taken for various investment purposes. Little is known to the public of the deals the government is entering with these foreign investment companies that are eyeing Tanzania as a destination in agricultural investment. Investment in agricultural land has been a key driving force in Tanzania as a rush now has intensified in which agricultural land is being taken for various uses.

This study is focused on the effects of the eviction process of pastoralists from Mbarali to Lindi Rural and Kilwa Districts in Lindi Region. The study sampled six villages out 15 villages in Lindi Rural and Kilwa districts. The study employed semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with district, village authorities, host communities and migrating pastoralists in selected villages.

This is the report relating to the facts finding mission conducted by HAKIARDHI and LHRC as an intervention in response to an outcry from the villagers at Namwawala village in Kilombero district, Morogoro region, owing to the alleged plan of the government to take possession of the village land for investment purposes.

A fact-finding mission team was formed as a result of consultative meetings on the land dispute between the village government and pastoralists in Vilima Vitatu village in Babati district. The team was comprised of the following members: Kassian Mshomba (LHRC), Seif Mangwangi (Majira), Diana Mawalla (PINGOs Forum), Hamadi Sadick, Emmanuel Cornel (PINGOs Forum), Asraji Mvungi (ITV), Rodgers Luhwago (The Citizen), Bakari Mnkondo (Uhuru), Bernard Baha (HakiArdhi) and Chambi Chachage (Independent Researcher).

Land use conflicts are common phenomena in Tanzania and the world at large. One major reason before going to specific cases hinges on the fact that land does not expand while people and other living organizations that depend on it keeps on increasing on the early surface. This un matching ratio between land as basic resources for livelihoods and its users constantly results into land use conflicts.

This report springs from series of field visits.Its aim was, among others, to examine further the extent of human rights violations suffered by pastoralists in Kilombero and Rufiji valley during the evictions. It additionally makes recommendations including the need for lobbying against the State’s contempt of court orders

The world is increasingly encroaching on indigenous peoples’ traditional lands. Around the globe, indigenous communities are forced to cede ground to state development, corporate land grabs, rising sea levels, environmental degradation, and population growth. The right to land provides the basis for access to food, housing, and development. But for indigenous peoples, traditional lands are more than this; they represent essential ties to their ancestors, their culture, and their languages. Losing their land means losing their way of life.

This report provides an overview of the conflict in Loliondo, reviewing historical information, current land uses and tenure arrangements. 

IWGIA has recently been informed by local partners in Tanzania that a government operation aimed at forcefully removing pastoralists from the Kilosa district in the Morogoro Region in southern Tanzania started on the 29.1.2009. The Tanzanian government wants to remove all pastoralists from Kilosa district and, according to some sources, the whole of Morogoro Region, and force them to other areas of Tanzania. Such areas have though, according to IWGIA local partners as yet not been specified, and the affected families do not know where to go to.

This urgent alert is based on the forceful evictions of Maasai pastoralists from their homes and grazing lands in Loliondo Division, Ngorongoro District in Northern Tanzania and the gross human rights violations that are being committed. 

The eviction operation started on the 4th July 2009 and was conducted by the notorious riot police, the Field Force Unit, with assistance of private guards from the Otterlo Business Cooperation (OBC). They entered the villages by shooting in the air and using teargas before pouring petrol on the Maasai homes and setting them on fire.