Conservation, Displacementand Livelihoods. the Consequences of the Eviction for Pastoralists Moved from the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania

In northeast Tanzania there is a moderate-sized game reserve with many birds and a superabundance of beetles (Map 1). It is called Mkomazi. It attracts few tourists and little revenue, but it has been the subject of controversy within Tanzania and internationally. The reserve has long been contested by people who wished to use it and those promoting the interest of wildlife, who wanted it restored as a wildlife sanctuary. In the late 1980s the wildlife interests prevailed; large numbers of people, many of them pastoralists, were evicted from the reserve. Mkomazi is another example to add to the catalogue of lost East African pastures, and in particular, another case of land lost to conservation. What are the effects of such evictions? The incidents of land loss to conservation, and the history and politics of struggles over them, are well recorded; but surprisingly there is little material that deals with the practical changes that result. In this paper I examine some of the consequences of eviction from Mkomazi. I focus on the changes resulting to the livestock economy at the district and household level; then I consider the opposition to the moves and international reports about them. I argue here that eviction and loss of grazing land had a detrimental effect on the livestock economy, and that livelihoods have changed as a result. The livelihood changes serve to underline the resilience of rural peoples’ response to impoverishment.