Othering Pastoralists, State Violence, and the Remaking of Boundaries in Tanzania’s Militarised Wildlife Conservation Sector

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which Tanzanian conservation authorities utilise biodiversity “extinction narratives” in order to legitimise the use of violence in redrawing protected areas’ boundaries. Militarisation and violence in conservation have often been associated with the “war on poaching”. Drawing on the history of conservation and violence in Tanzania, and using an empirical case from Loliondo, the paper suggests that violence in conservation may be legitimised when based on extinction narratives and a claim that more exclusive spaces are urgently needed to protect biodiversity. It argues that the emerging militarisation and use of violence in Tanzania can be associated with both global biodiversity extinction and local neo‐Malthusian narratives, which recently have regained predominance. When combined with “othering” of groups of pastoralists by portraying them as foreign “invaders”, such associations legitimise extensions of state control over contested land by any means available, including violence.

Integrating stakeholders’ perspectives and spatial modelling to develop scenarios of future land use and land cover change in northern Tanzania

“…Several villages with 'Village Certificates of Land' have liaised with investors to establish tourism ventures on their land that benefit both investors and residents [97,103]. Tourism ventures on village lands generate annual revenues of up to $50,000 USD [112]. With the scenarios indicating there will be forest loss in Loliondo in 2030, deforestation and fragmentation of forests would reduce the connectivity between wildlife habitats.…”

Designed for accumulation by dispossession: An analysis of Tanzania's Wildlife Management Areas through the case of Burunge

“…We, therefore, conclude that, by design and against their officially stated objectives, WMAs can leave villagers disenfranchised and impoverished, which may eventually turn them into conservation refugees (Dowie, 2011; Weldemichel, 2020). An unfortunate but not necessarily pre‐conceived or coordinated mix of conservation NGOs' interest in establishing wildlife migration corridors and vested interests in wildlife tourism revenues, has slowly but surely excluded Minjingu villagers from accessing resources such as water, pasture, and nontimber forest products on their village land while their democratically elected Village Government gradually lost control over revenues generated from this land.…”

Dung Beetle Diversity and Community Composition Along a Land Use Gradient in a Savannah Ecosystem of North Western Tanzania

“…Game Controlled Areas (GCA's) are type of protected area provided for in Tanzania's Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974. In accordance with the Act, human settlement and the grazing of livestock are unrestricted, and hunting of wildlife is only permitted under licence (Weldemichel, 2020). Twenty-five large mammal species have been recorded within GCA (Martin et al, 2019) including high abundance of game species including zebra (Hippotigris quagga), Grants gazelle (Nanger granti), impala, (Aepyceros melampus) , Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) and Buffalo (Syncerus caffer).…”