UN experts urge Tanzania’s government to stop evictions of Maasai Indigenous communities from Ngorongoro Conservation Area
“Conservation efforts must not come at the expense of human rights.”
Eight UN Special Rapporteurs are calling on the Government of Tanzania to publish two Presidential Commissions about the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Indigenous Maasai communities that live there. For several years, the government has been planning to evict tens of thousands of Maasai from their ancestral land in Ngorongoro.
Far from upholding the rights of the Maasai, the Commissions recommended mass eviction of the Maasai from their homes in Ngorongoro.
In a press release, the eight UN experts1 say that,
We are alarmed that these reports, commissioned in February 2025, remain undisclosed despite government public statements indicating that their recommendations will guide imminent policy decisions.
The Presidential Commissions were established following evictions and large-scale protests in August 2024.
The Commissions were supposed to take three months. They were supposed to release their findings at regular intervals. In March 2026, the two Commissions’ reports were delivered to President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The reports have still not been published.
The UN experts say that,
These reports are of profound public interest and must be made available to the public without delay. Decisions affecting tens of thousands of Indigenous Peoples cannot be taken behind closed doors.
“Historical commitments to Indigenous Peoples must be honoured”
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers an area of 829,000 hectares and about 100,000 people live there. The majority are Maasai pastoralists.
“In 1951, the Maasai were assured that they could continue residing in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in exchange for relinquishing lands to establish the Serengeti National Park,” the UN experts note.
“These historical commitments to Indigenous Peoples must be honoured and their human rights fully respected.”
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is central to the Maasai’s identity, cultural practices, and livelihoods as Indigenous People.
“Conservation efforts must not come at the expense of human rights,” the UN experts state. They urge the government to stop any actions that could lead to forced evictions.
The UN experts state that, “The protection of biodiversity and the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights are not mutually exclusive. Sustainable solutions require both.”
UNESCO’s complicity
In 2010, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. UNESCO’s website on Ngorongoro includes photographs of landscapes featuring lions, baboons, flamingos, cranes, bustards, ostriches, storks, wildebeest, zebras, elephants, ostriches, leopards, and giraffes. But only one photograph featuring the Maasai.
On 18 April 2026, World Heritage Day, hundreds of Maasai protested against the evictions from Ngorongoro in the name of conservation. Survival International reports that they highlighted UNESCO’s complicity in the government’s persecution of the Maasai people.
“The Tanzanian authorities have carried out arbitrary arrests, beaten and tortured residents, and suspended health services to force families out,” Survival International writes.
In a statement, the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance points out that UNESCO was mentioned three times on 12 March 2026, during the presentation of the reports of the Commissions. “The World Heritage Status is being used against us, without us,” the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance states. “We are not considered as legitimate and primary rights-holders of Ngorongoro. Ngorongoro, to them, belongs to tourists, conservationists, and the world.”
The Maasai International Solidarity Alliance calls on UNESCO, IUCN, and the World Heritage Committee:
to restate the importance of the Multiple Land Use Model, which is key to our survival and coexistence with wildlife;
to clearly and publicly state that Indigenous Peoples’ rights must be upheld;
to insist that the various Indigenous communities of Ngorongoro are the legitimate custodians and rights‑holders of this land; and
to demand that the so-called voluntary relocation programme be terminated.
The eight experts are the following:
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context
Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Albert K. Barume, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples
Paula Gaviria, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Evolution in the History of our species, Homo sapiens rests on the shoulders of millions of indigenous peoples. Those of us who deem ourselves, "Modern" have no right to obliterate the livelihoods of our forefathers. The Masai have insights, wisdom and knowledge that even "Modern" Tanzanian inhabitants will pay a high price for, in the future, if they abandon all respect for this ancient, indigenous folk.