The Ruaha National Park expansion project has been subjected to several investigations into abuses, prompting the World Bank to withhold its latest funding. While wildlife populations are on the rise in Tanzania, the development of safaris and tourism, the country’s main driver of economic growth, may occur by abusing local populations.
Tanzania was poised to receive the remaining 50 million dollars of a 150 million dollars global financing package designed to develop tourism in the south of the country. But the World Bank backed out. The funding was suspended following allegations of murder, theft, rape, and forced evictions in the Ruaha National Park area, at the heart of the project.
“We have received information that suggests a violation of our policies during the implementation of the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project in Tanzania. We have therefore decided to suspend any further disbursement of funds with immediate effect,” said a World Bank spokesperson on Tuesday, as reported by The Guardian.
The international institution had granted the Tanzanian authorities until November to resolve complaints of civil rights violations linked to the program, raised by two anonymous Tanzanian citizens, before opening a formal investigation into the matter. On November 15, the World Bank’s Board of Directors authorized the opening of an investigation into the Regrow project.
The murder of a cattle farmer
The U.S.-based Oakland Institute think tank had already documented a series of abuses committed by Tanzanian rangers against villagers who were accused of encroaching on the national park.
The organization welcomed the announcement of the suspended funding, noting that it comes a year after they informed the World Bank of potential violations of its own policies on the Ruaha National Park site.
Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the think-tank, said: “This decision sends a clear message to the Tanzanian government: human rights violations committed throughout the country to boost tourism are not without consequences. The days of impunity are finally coming to an end.”
The Oakland Institute pointed out that, despite the announcement of the World Bank investigation, the Tanzanian government continued with its plans to redraw the boundaries of the national park, resulting in the eviction of 21,000 people. Further abuses reportedly followed, including the murder of a 21-year-old cattle herder, instances of rape against women, and the seizure of thousands of livestock.
“The government’s plan to expand the park cannot go against the will of local communities, who will lose everything in this expansion, said Mr. Mittal. In addition to preventing forced evictions, the bank must focus on how to remedy the harm caused to villagers who have lost loved ones to ranger violence or whose lives have been devastated by restrictions on livelihoods.”
Arbitrary detentions of Maasai in the north
This is not the first time the Tanzanian government has been accused of mistreatment for the sake of lucrative tourism projects. In June 2023, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and forced evictions of members of the indigenous Maasai community in Loliondo, part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a national park in northern Tanzania, attached to the famous Serengeti Park.
The report exposes the use of force against the Maasai community to appropriate 1,500 km² of land belonging to the Loliondo village, with the aim of expanding luxury hunting reserves.
However, the Tanzanian government has denied allegations that villagers have been victims of abuses, including forced evictions, as part of the national park expansion project.
“The Tanzanian government does not violate human rights in the implementation of any project, including those funded by the World Bank,” said Mobhare Matinyi, government spokesperson, on Thursday to the state-run television channel TBC.
“The World Bank has received reports from civil society organizations casting doubts on the project, alleging human rights violations in the region. These reports are false,” he added.
The tourism industry
The services and tourism sector is the main driver of Tanzania’s overall economic growth, with record expansion of 7.3% in 2023, representing over 3.3 billion dollars in revenue.
The country seems to be banking everything on its national parks, even if this means violating the rights of local populations. The Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) has recorded an impressive 94% increase in revenue over the last three years across all 22 parks, as the tourism industry recovers from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Revenues have risen from nearly 68 million dollars in 2021/2022 to 130 million dollars in 2022/2023.
And with good reason: according to a census by the Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute published on Tuesday, the country boasts the highest number of buffalo in Africa, with over 50% of all buffalo on the planet, a total of 225,000.
Tanzania further distinguishes itself in leopard conservation efforts, with a total of 24,000 recorded, outnumbering lions by an estimated 17,000, again the highest figure on the continent. These numbers are undoubtedly enough to make one eager to promote safari sales, whatever the cost.
Edit: The article was updated on April 25 to include the Tanzanian government’s response rejecting the allegations of human rights violations.
