Searchable database of alleged violations against Indigenous Peoples' human rights in protected areas and natural parks.
| Title | Country | Impacted Indigenous People(s) | Short Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mkomazi Game Reserve-MGR | Tanzania | Maasai, Barabaig | In Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania), the Maasai and Barabaig pastoralists have faced decades of dispossession and violence tied to conservation expansion and forced evictions. Established as a game reserve in 1951 and upgraded to a national park in 2006, Mkomazi was cleared of tens of thousands of cattle and herders during the 1988 mass evictions, justified by environmental claims and foreign-funded conservation agendas led by the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust. Despite court challenges asserting customary land rights, the High Court upheld their removal. In recent years, rangers have continued to shoot and kill herders, including the 2022 killing of 17-year-old Ngaitepa Marias Lukumay, sparking local outrage but no accountability. Backed by international donors such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and WWF, Mkomazi remains emblematic of “fortress conservation,” where wildlife protection is prioritized over the survival, safety, and ancestral rights of Indigenous pastoralist communities. |
Disclaimer: The Conservation database contains allegations related to human rights violations of indigenous peoples impacted by protected areas, national parks and other conservation measures. Allegations of human rights violations were collected from a wide range of sources, including thematic, country, and fact-finding mission reports submitted by indigenous organizations, individual experts, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, newspaper articles, petitions, communications, statements, and other relevant information or materials issued by United Nations independent experts and human rights mechanisms. The information provided in this database does not necessarily reflect the official views of the University of Arizona, the University of Arizona College of Law, or the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, nor is there any guarantee or endorsement of any information or views expressed therein. If you wish to add additional allegations, please reachout to us via email law-conservation@arizona.edu