Tourists Photograph on Safari

Back to Search Results

Crater Tourism:.Tanzania wants to boost the number of tourists to 1 million in ten years.  Right now there are about 300,000 tourists and 30,000 Masai.  The Masai homeland was Serengeti National Park... then they got thrown out of there and were all put in this crater... then they were all thrown out of the crater and this crater has become Tanzanias foremost tourist attraction.  The FZS people say the last 20 Rhinos in the crater may be reacting to this level of tourism... if it increases 3 to 4 fold it is hard to say what will happen.  More tourism also means more camps, more lodges and less land for Masai and their cattle..Also the lodges on the rim of the crater are sucking so much water that it is affecting the ecosystem.  Maasai are switching to smaller stock that can deal with drier conditions.   Even though the crater was their homeland, now they are only allowed to brind cattle in during the day to lick salt and then they have to leave.  But the more enterprising Maasai try to get money off tourists by selling their spears or posing for photographs.  This newfound wealth is creating a breakdown of the family system.  Where they used to get together in the forest for a meal with their extended families, now they have so few cows and everyone is out for themselves... so the money sucked off of tourism is spent on beer and cell phones.  The average Maasai now has 2 or 3 cows... the average in the 70's was 12 cows per Maasai.  In previous years, if a Maasai family lost cows, the rest of the community would get together and replace them... not anymore....  The Maasai were kicked out of Serengeti National Park.  Then they were kicked out of the crater which is now Tanzania's main tourist attraction. Now they feel like they are squatters on their land and might be kicked out of the NCA at any time. This family cannot cultivate much, can't buy a tractor, can't fence their land etc... etc... because they are in a multi-use area of the NCA.  So this family survives m
< previous image next image >

Image Details

  • Dimensions: 4992x3328
  • File size: 8.7MB