Land is Life Stands in Solidarity with the Maasai who are Threatened by Eviction from their Ancestral Lands in Ngorongoro, Tanzania
“This is our territory, territory means life; our identity and we can’t survive without. The fortress conservation model pushes our people out of their land. We need local and global synergies to stop land grabbing and eviction of the Indigenous pastoralists of Ngorongoro.” – Maasai Leader (name withheld for security reasons) The Indigenous Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania keep resisting the government’s efforts to displace them from their ancestral lands. Until now, the Maasai herders who practice traditional livestock grazing, have been coexisting with the wildlife of the conservation area, which also is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Government of Tanzania claims that the rising Maasai population and their livestock are threatening wildlife protection. At the same time, Ngorongoro has become one of the most intensively visited conservation areas in Africa where tourism rates have exploded from 20,000 yearly visits to 650,000 visits in the past 30 years. It thus seems that the displacement of the Maasai is not about nature conservation but about expanding tourism revenues. This is nothing new – in 2009, for example, thousands of Maasai families were evicted from Loliondo to allow a United Arab Emirates -based luxury tourism and trophy hunting company OBC to fully operate in the area. In addition, it was in 1959 when Maasai pastoralists were forcibly resettled from the Serengeti plains to Ngorongoro due to the establishment of the national park. It is now some of the very same Maasai who are facing threats to be evicted from home for the second time. “Evicting the Maasai of Ngorongoro means violating their native rights of territory ownership. The women and children are the most suffering. Both the people of this community and their livestock are in great danger of losing their livelihoods.” – Maasai woman (name withheld for security reasons) Land is Life stands with the Maasai pastoralists of Ngorongoro and joins their demands on the Government of Tanzania to halt the eviction plans immediately. We also request the UNESCO – that claims to integrate the protection of cultural and natural heritage and to preserve the balance between nature and people – to intervene. We would like to ask them, what is the role of a World Heritage Site without its living cultural heritage? Land is Life joins the calls for the establishment of a Maasai-led steering committee to find the right balance between the pastoralists’ livelihoods, tourism, and biodiversity in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Land is Life at U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2022
The 21st session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) was held April 25 – May 6 at United Nations headquarters in New York. After two years, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous delegates from around the world were able to once again gather in person for the Forum. The UNPFII is a high-level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to address issues related to Indigenous Peoples’ economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. Land is Life and our delegation was able to participate in a number of dialogues and meetings throughout the forum. Deep concerns were expressed on the threats that the extractive industries, infrastructure mega projects, loggings, and large-scale agriculture pose to Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI). Land is Life, as the Secretariat of the International Working Group GTI PIACI, applauds the forum’s recommendations on human rights where it was recommended that the Human Rights Council (OHCHR), in cooperation with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Indigenous people’s organizations, start a process of evaluating the progress made, identifying implementation gaps and making recommendations to advance the protection of PIACI and to guarantee their rights. This adoption marks one step closer towards the protection of the PIACI whose ways of life are exposed to extremely high vulnerability. Land is Life at UNPFII 2022: Strengthening the Collective Security of Indigenous Defenders Recording Indigenous Voices on the Global 30×30 Initiative and Philanthropy’s Response Unfree, Late and Uninformed Consent from Ethiopia to Asia Human Rights Violations of Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation by Companies in the Amazon and Gran Chaco Autonomous Protocols of Free, Prior and Informed Consent: An Alternative Tool towards Regulation for Indigenous Communities
Land is Life stands with the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia
While the war in Ukraine has been claiming lives and deteriorating all aspects of the well-being of the Ukrainian people for more than a month now, the human rights violations of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia itself have not halted. As a result of the war’s impacts on the government, the ongoing land seizures, as well as the environmental and human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples within Russia, will be even more difficult to address. In Russia, Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices have been silenced since the outbreak of the war. However, Indigenous peoples living in exile have stood up and are raising their voices to condemn the immoral acts of Vladimir Putin. They have collectively decided to withdraw from all Russia-based organizations that have approved the actions of the Russian Government, and to establish a new, independent organization, the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia. Land is Life joins the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia in condemning the war and firmly stands in solidarity with the Ukrainians, Russians and all the Indigenous and non-Indigenous victims who suffer from the vile acts of Putin and his allies. Please find below an open statement of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia. * * * Statement of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia WE – the undersigned representatives of the Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East living outside of Russia against our will—are outraged by the war President Putin has unleashed against Ukraine. At the moment, the entire population of Ukraine is in grave danger. Old people, women and children are dying. Cities and towns of an independent country are being destroyed because their inhabitants did not want to obey the will of a dictator and a tyrant. As representatives of Indigenous peoples, WE express solidarity with the people of Ukraine in their struggle for freedom and are extremely concerned about ensuring the rights of Indigenous peoples during the war on Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula that remains illegally occupied by Russia. As representatives of Indigenous peoples, WE are outraged by statements of the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) on March 1, 2022 and the statement of civil society leaders on March 2, 2022 in support of the decisions of President Putin. Such public statements can only be considered as direct support for the military aggression against the Ukrainian people, and their signatories are accomplices of the murderers of civilians in Ukraine. WE believe that the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) has become an adjunct of the Russian Government domestically and internationally. Once a leader in the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, it is today became an organization whose main purpose is to justify the actions of the Government and extractive companies that feed President Putin’s regime and destroy the traditional lands of indigenous peoples. WE believe that the leaders of RAIPON—Grigory Ledkov, Alexander Novyukhov, and Anna Otke who signed the letter should be also treated as war criminals, not merely accomplices of the war, because they voted for military action as members of the Russian Parliament. From now on, WE will consider any statements on any international platforms made by RAIPON and its representatives or by representatives of other organizations of Indigenous peoples which supported Vladimir Putin’s decisions regarding Ukraine as falsehood and propaganda as their main purpose is maintaining the prestige of the Russian authorities at the international level. WE call on any international organizations, nonprofit and intergovernmental, scientific, environmental, human rights and others, including institutes and branches of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the Arctic Council to ignore the statements of RAIPON representatives and spokespeople of other organizations which supported Vladimir Putin’s decisions. Those statements are propaganda originating in the Russian political regime. We appeal to the international community to no longer consider RAIPON a legitimate representative of the Indigenous peoples of Russia. WE also declare that we are withdrawing from all Russia-based organizations and networks of Indigenous peoples of Russia in which we were previously members. We announce the creation of a new, independent organization—the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia. Tjan Zaotschnaja – Itelmen Dmitry Berezhkov – Kamchadal Pavel Sulyandziga – Udege Yana Tannagasheva – Shor Andrey Danilov – Saami Vladislav Tannagashev – Shor Irina Shafrannik – Selkup Please find the Russian version of the statement here.