How Green Colonialism in the Maasai Region is Marginalizing Local Communities

(Photo by Erasmus Kamugisha via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

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On World Heritage Day, April 18, 2026, thousands of Maasai people protested to denounce UNESCO’s complicity in the Tanzanian government’s long-standing persecution of Maasai People. The Maasai are an Indigenous pastoralist ethnic group living in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Maasai People have lived in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – for generations. 

This was not the first time Maasai People have protested against forced evictions from their ancestral lands in Tanzania. In August 2024, protesters blocked a road in front of one of Tanzania’s biggest tourist attractions, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

This act of protest aimed to raise awareness of the forced eviction of the Maasai from their ancestral land as well as the Tanzanian government’s denial of their basic rights. The government has long justified this under the guise of nature conservation and luxury tourism. 

Forced Evictions and Wildlife Conservancy in the Maasai Region 

As highlighted by the 2024 Human Rights Watch report, since 2021, the Tanzanian government has planned to relocate about 82,000 Maasai people from their homes and ancestral lands in Arusha region’s NCA by 2027. According to Survival International, the government and foreign investors are converting Maasai ancestral territories in NCA and Loliondo into game reserves and luxury tourism hubs.

At the time, the Tanzanian government claimed this plan was a voluntary resettlement plan from the NCA to Msomera village in Tanga region’s Handeni district, about 600 kilometres away. They promised to relocate  NCA families by supplying them with a house and about two to five acres of land to farm. They have additionally pledged to construct and renovate roads, a primary school, dispensary, post office, police post, water supply system, electricity, and cellular network to service Msomera. 

This resettlement plan, however, has proven to be far from voluntary. Tanzanian authorities have forcibly evicted the Maasai in violation of international human rights laws. In doing so, they have repeatedly inflicted violence upon Maasai people to force them to relocate. In June 2022, over 31 people were severely injured and hundreds displaced during a single wave of protests when security forces used live ammunition to enforce land demarcation lines. 

In 2026, the Tanzanian government continued forced evictions and human rights violations, restricting access to services like healthcare, education and water services to pressure Maasai residents to leave their homes. This increased insecurity and poverty have been condemned by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and the Minority Rights Group, among other international NGOs. In August of 2026, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a statement urging Tanzania to halt its excessive measures and stop all forced relocations and arbitrary arrests. 

Africa’s Eden Myth 

The case of the Maasai people and region is not an isolated example of forced dispossession being justified by environmental conservation efforts. The Sengwer community in Kenya has faced continuous threats and evictions from the Cherangany Hills. The Baka Pygmy communities in the Republic of Congo have been displaced by the Odzala-Kokoua National Park. These cases of dispossession have all occurred under the banner of Western-backed nature conservation. 

The growth of environmental conservation projects in Africa relies on a shared Western conception of nature as ‘untouched wilderness’. This “African Eden” myth is a colonial idea that views Africa as a pristine, empty wilderness that needs to be saved from its own inhabitants. This colonial mindset is reinforced by media like National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and the BBC, seeking to portray Africa as a place without boundaries, without societies, where there were only savannas, oases and primary forests.

These ideas are further reinforced by the loss of ecosystems in non-Western countries, which motivates protection and conservation particularly in Africa; the more nature disappears in the West, the more it is  romanticized in Africa. This mindset reflects a form of “green colonialism,” centring the interests of African and European directors of major environmental organizations at the cost of  marginalizing local communities. 

Across the continent, people who lived in areas designated as national parks or other conserved areas face expulsion because, rather than being seen as collaborators or stewards in conservation projects, their existence is treated as a threat to the environment. 

Green Colonialism: a New Form of Appropriation

‘Green colonialism’ refers to the process whereby increased investment in green energy and conservation initiatives exploits the land and livelihoods of marginalised communities. This concept crucially highlights the ways in which the costs of producing renewable energy and green technologies often fall on Global South countries and Indigenous groups. 

The word ‘colonial’ is used to emphasize that colonial patterns of land control and dispossession are being recreated by these environmental policies. Given that they are often initiated by Global North actors under the guise of environmental protection, the severe social, cultural, and economic consequences for Indigenous populations as a result of these projects embody the label of ‘green colonialism’. 

Green colonialism operates in the worldwide context of a transition towards sustainability and environmental protection. In the context of the green transition that aims to reduce worldwide carbon emissions, environmental initiatives are imposed on Indigenous lands without consent, replicating the same patterns of exploitation and domination under the guise of sustainability. 

Eco-tourism as Green Colonialism in Tanzania

The creation of new protected areas nonetheless remains the domain of African governments, with governments like Tanzania’s showing little to no concern for the local and Indigenous People who reside on the lands. Additionally, Indigenous Peoples in Africa only make up three percent of the continent’s population, yet they are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and climate change.

Indigenous People’s reliance on natural resources not only affects their livelihoods and cultural practices but also sometimes the survival of the group. This reinforces marginalization and control by elite groups over Indigenous populations.   

In Tanzania, luxury safari lodges like &Beyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge or Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge are advertised as “authentic experiences” where tourists can immerse themselves in wildlife and Maasai culture. Yet many of these conservation projects are funded by international private conglomerates, foreign governments, African regional investors, and state authorities to serve the interests of elites and the national government with little to no concern for the Maasai local population. 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) based Otterlo Business Company (OBC) has been criticised for running hunting excursions for the country’s royal family and their guests and controlling commercial hunting in the area. The company has past involvement in several violent evictions of the Maasai, burning of homes, and the killing of thousands of rare animals in the area. 

These actions have been justified under the argument for environmental protection and conservation. In Tanzania, 40% of the territory is considered a protected conservation area. According to the Oakland Institute, these protected areas are home to around 100,000 Maasai, against which the government claims the evictions are necessary to protect the environment. 

But what this really shows is that the right of the Maasai to use their land is being taken away by the government to protect the state’s financial interests. Indeed, tourism, mostly driven by wildlife excursions and eco-tourism, constitutes over 17% of the country’s GDP.

This process can be described as ‘elite capture’. Elite capture describes the way socially advantaged people tend to gain control over financial benefits meant for everyone. In this case, it highlights how small, powerful minorities, whether they are in Tanzania or abroad, are able to take advantage of environmental conservation projects in the Maasai region and redirect the profit for themselves rather than back to the Maasai communities. 

Commercialization Under “Conservation” 

Green colonialism in East Africa disguises itself as a way to increase tourism revenues and therefore development. Environmental conservation initiatives, like in the NCA in Tanzania, are often portrayed by governments and NGOs as a way to empower communities and create jobs. However, without proper planning, these processes are often captured by local elites and corporate interests that control the resources and appropriate the benefits expected to flow to local communities. 

This dispossession of people from their land to create conservation areas reinforces the idea that nature is a profitable good that can be exploited. What green colonialism in East Africa shows us today is that the growth of nature parks and tourism has been developed at the expense of Indigenous and local populations. 

Ultimately, it is a process that separates humans from wildlife, conceiving nature as dispensable. Rather than understanding nature as a domain to be ruled over, conquered, and extracted, future environmental initiatives must be conceived with local communities serving as a part of a system in which humanity and nature cohabit harmoniously to their mutual benefit.

Edited by Henry Stevens