Group calls for restraint in Ngorongoro land dispute

Dar es Salaam. An advocacy group wants the government to tread carefully during efforts at resolving the land dispute between conservationists and the people living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
A group that calls itself ‘Media Centre for Resource and Information Advocacy’ (Mecira) yesterday outlined some of the dangers facing people who live in the conservation area.
Mecira chairman Habibu Mchange said there was one side of the story that is not told from the conflict, detailing how bad the living conditions were for the people who reside inside the area.
The issues include poor sanitation, lack of access to education and other basic services.
“Those people also face danger of being killed by wild animals like lions and tigers among others which is very prevalent now as population has increased significantly,” he said.
Mr Mchange said activists who state that the population inside Ngorongoro were mostly pastoralists were spreading incorrect information, saying official data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that only three percent of the people there own livestock.
While over 120,000 people live inside the conservation area, 64 percent do not know how to read and write, he said.
Mecira’s vice chairman, Mr Maulid Kitenge, said they toured the area  recently, and what they saw was a cause for concern in terms of conservation.
He said they found that children who are out of school were begging for food from tourists. “During the tour, we also saw a lot of livestock inside the conservation area.
“The area that used to be occupied by wildlife is now occupied by people and their livestock. People have gone as far as building multiple-storey houses inside the Ngorongoro,” he said.
Another member of the organisation, Mr Khamis Mkotya, said it was high time that the  media, as one of the important pillars of the nation,  took action and tell the reality on the Ngorongoro situation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa promised that the government will launch a dialogue with the people of Ngorongoro Division, as well as those of Loliondo, to find a solution based on human rights.