The Maasai of Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – are facing mass evictions in the name of nature conservation. Two new Tanzanian government reports recommended that the evictions continue and expand.
And this is happening with UNESCO’s support. For years, UNESCO's reports and World Heritage Committee decisions have framed Maasai as the main threat to the environment in the area, providing legitimacy and arguments to the evictions. The Tanzanian government has explicitly cited UNESCO reports and World Heritage status in official justifications for the evictions.
On World Heritage Day 2024, Survival published its report Decolonize UNESCO, documenting this pattern of complicity across multiple World Heritage Sites worldwide. We and our Indigenous partners never received an adequate response.
The World Heritage Committee meets in July. Now is the time to influence its members. Tell them: Ngorongoro is Maasai land and they have protected it for generations. No place where such abuse occurs deserves the title of World Heritage Site. Delist NCA now. Stand with the Maasai
Your email will be sent to members of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO, and copied to IUCN, ICOMOS, the President and government of Tanzania, the embassies of Germany, France and the UK to Tanzania, and the EU Delegation to Tanzania.
