Our vision for the future

Land Rights for hunter-gatherers and pastoralists – where people and wildlife thrive:

• Secure land rights for the Hadzabe, Akie, Maasai, and Datoga and support natural resource management efforts

• Advocate for national level for sound and supportive policies that secure rights and livelihoods for hunter-gatherers and pastoralists

IMPACT

A future for the ‘first people’

The Hadzabe are one of the last hunter-gatherer groups in the world. They have lived in the Lake Eyasi area for at least 40,000 years, sustaining on wildlife, honey, and a vast array of wild plants. Today, they number a little over 1000; their way of life threatened by modern industrial practices, tourism, farming, and grazing. In the last 50 years, the Hadzabe have lost over 90% of their land. Yet, there is a brighter future for the Hadzabe today...

In 2011, Dorobo Fund supported UCRT in helping the Hadzabe secure rights to 20,000 hectares of land. The following year more land - 36,000 hectares - was secured for the Datoga tribe for grazing purposes to dually serve as a buffer to the Hadzabe's land.

In partnership with Carbon Tanzania, a carbon offsetting project, the Hadzabe community began earning an income from protecting their forests. So far, the community, along with the neighbouring communities has earned more than USD $652,382. Over the next 20 years the project is estimated to help avoid 268,939 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

This initiative is linked to a broader collaboration that Dorobo Fund is involved in called the Northern Tanzania Rangelands Initiative, a collaborative effort comprised of multiple, diverse organizations, which seeks to reverse current trends and permanently protect this landscape, for the benefit of people and nature.

NTRI is a partnership between Dorobo Fund and eight other NGO’s that aims to promote sustainable, local land use practices in order to secure five priority livestock and wildlife movement corridors in the northern rangelands. This initiative seeks to achieve this by enhancing the integration of pastoralists and hunter-gatherer livelihood systems through holistic support and incentives to communities. The result being an ecologically and economically thriving landscape that supports people and wildlife and is resilient to future stress.