Maasai Wellbeing and Implications for Wildlife Migrating from Tarangire National Park

Abstract

A multi-dimensional, locally grounded conceptualisation of human wellbeing provides a way to understand the complexity of people’s lives, incentives and aspirations with the potential to inform socially just conservation interventions that have local legitimacy. Based on semi-structured group interviews and a survey at the household level, we discuss how wellbeing is conceptualized among the Maasai of Simanjiro, how this differs between social groups, and how social aspirations have implications for conservation interventions in the ecosystem. We highlight how communal grazing land which aligns with conservation priorities is of paramount importance, but agriculture is also central to people’s lives and there is a growing emphasis by younger men on securing private land. Social unity also constitutes wellbeing, but is jeopardized by land disputes and party politics, and is tied up with mistrust of external actors rooted in a history of land and resource alienation. Land insecurity is viewed as a threat to wellbeing, and partly drives the conversion of land to agriculture as well as other aspirations such as education. The findings suggest that future interventions will need to increase land security, work to establish trust in conservation processes and institutions, and provide equitable alternatives to agriculture to meet subsistence needs.