The Gnu's World: Serengeti Wildebeest Ecology and Life History

12. Serengeti Shall Not Die? Africa’s Most Iconic World Heritage Site under Siege

263 That the Serengeti migratory ecosystem remains largely intact would seem to defy the odds, for all other African migratory ecosystems (apart from the floodplains of South Sudan, where the kob and tiang migrations miraculously survived the civil war) have been severely disrupted. Even the Serengeti ecosystem lost an estimated 40 percent of its original area (approx. 30,143 sq. km in 1910) by the 1990s.1 I have dwelled on the characteristics that set the Serengeti apart from all other savanna ecosystems in the preceding chapters. In this final chapter I want to enumerate the challenges to survival of this most iconic World Heritage Site (WHS) and International Biosphere Reserve (IBR) in the twenty-first century. Only Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area carry the WHS and IBR designations. The other parts of the ecosystem , described below, are less well protected. In Tanzania: Game Reserves—Maswa (2,200 sq. km), Ikorongo (3,000 sq. km, 60,274 ha), Grumeti (2,000 sq. km) and Kijereshi (65.7 sq. km) Game Controlled Areas—Loliondo (4,000 sq. km), Speke Gulf (300 sq. km) Open Areas—Makao (1,330 sq. km), Ikoma (600 sq. km) Chapter 12 Serengeti Shall Not Die? Africa’s Most Iconic World Heritage Site under Siege 264 | Chapter 12 Community-based conservation schemes, including Ikona Wildlife Management Area (WMA) In Kenya: Masai Mara National Reserve (1,500 sq. km) Mara group ranches—Masai lands abutting the Masai Mara Reserve. The four main ranches are Koyiaki, Lemek/Ol Chorro, Olkinyai, and Siana. The Isiria plateau (drought refuge, unprotected) Overall, 20 percent of the ecosystem is unprotected. differences in the land tenure systems of tanzania, kenya, and uganda To appreciate the challenges to the Serengeti ecosystem, you need to understand the different approaches to land stewardship in each country , which reflect dissimilarities in political systems and governance. All three are republics, but two have socialist backgrounds, and one, Kenya, is arguably the most capitalistic African nation. In precolonial Africa, the underlying principles of land relations were rooted in social and political customs, which have underpinned and still influence ongoing changes in the tenure systems. Traditional systems of local land tenure clearly defined individual or family rights to some types of land use, for example, agricultural and pastoral lands, as well as common property resources. Rights were conferred on the basis of accepted group membership while maintaining a degree of group control or supervision over land affairs. Tanzania Just prior to independence in 1961, the British colonial government attempted to introduce the concept of freehold landownership, but the proposal was rejected by TANU, the political party of President Julius Nyerere, who was intent on making Tanganyika a model of African socialism. The Arusha Declaration of 1967 made Ujamaa, or familial unity, socialist development the law of the land. The entire body of land in Tanzania was declared “public lands.” Customary land rights and chieftainships were abolished and district and village governance sys- Serengeti Shall Not Die? | 265 tems established. Rights over the land were placed under the control and direction of the president of the United Republic, and those rights could not be disposed of without the president’s consent. The next step was the Villagization Program of 1974, which entailed the relocation of an estimated 75 percent of the population from scattered homesteads and smallholdings to communal (ujamaa) villages of 2,000– 4,000 residents. The benign goal was to improve social welfare, but when necessary, relocations were enforced. Village councils were given responsibility for land allocation and management. By implementing this largescale resettlement program, the central government essentially collectivized all forms of local productive capacity. In addition, the government nationalized and owned all of the major enterprises of national importance . To the extent that Ujamaa removed hunting pressure on wildlife over a wide area, the ecologist Alan Rodgers considered that large mammal populations probably benefited (N. Stronach, pers. comm.). Nyerere’s socialist experiment resulted in severe economic decline. Collectivization, intended to increase productivity, didn’t work: independent farms produced twice as much as the collectives. By the time Nyerere stepped down in 1985, Tanzania had become one of Africa’s poorest countries, dependent on international aid. Tanzania had reached rock bottom by the time I returned in 1978 to spend two and a half years at the Serengeti Research Institute, accompanied by my wife and two children aged five and seven. What an amazing...