DAR SALAAM: Tanzania will evict thousands of members of the Maasai community from their traditional lands if it goes ahead with plans to create a hunting park, campaigners claimed on Tuesday. Global activist group Avaaz alleged Tanzania had ambitions to turn 1,500 square kilometres of land in the Loliondo district into a hunting reserve for a company catering to the United Arab Emirates’ royal family.

There was no immediate response from the government, which scrapped similar plans for the land, which is next to the world famous Serengeti reserve in September 2013. Avaaz said Maasai community leaders had been told they would be offered $578,000 for their lands, less than $15 each for 40,000 of them to leave.

“The Maasai are the poster-boys to attract tourists to Tanzania, but in their own country they risk becoming the great unwanted,” said Alex Wilks, campaign director for Avaaz, which has collected an online petition of 1.7 million names.

“This deal would be disastrous for Tanzania’s reputation, for wildlife and for the Maasai”.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2014