7 yıl önce

Are Maasai cattle harming Tanzania's environment?

Conservationists claim the Maasai's cattle cause erosion and damage the environment. But the Maasai say their lifestyle is in complete harmony with the environment.

TRTWorld

The Masaai feel they are being pushed out of their homelands to protect an environment that is not really in danger.

Cows and goats are essential to the Maasai tribe's lifestyle in Tanzania.

They can be an investment for the future.

The Maasai, trade cows as a currency and no family wants to cut back their herd.

But cows use swathes of land to graze, and some of the places where the Maasai have lived for generations, are now considered to be among Tanzania's most precious wild areas.

Conservationists say that heavy grazing of the Maasai's cows cause erosion and environmental damage.

For that reason, the government has evicted them from an area just outside of the Serengeti.

But the Masaai say they do not exploit the environment, but they actually protect it.

TRT World's Lucy Taylor has the story.