EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Maasai in the Crater

Maasai Herder
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Explanation:  Down on the floor of this UNESCO Global Heritage site is a lone Maasai herdsman tending his cattle at a waterhole.  This is scene of today, of yesterday, and of millennia gone by.  But there is something sadly ironic here.

We are at the bottom of the amazing Ngorongoro Crater, near Serengeti National Park, in northern Tanzania.  Here, the indigenous Maasai people have nurtured their livestock herds for time immemorial.  But times, now, have become increasingly difficult for these remarkably inventive and hearty people.

Since the global COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Maasai have suffered a great economic loss as ecotourism has all but vanished from the region, including in adjacent Kenya in the Maasai Mara.  

And it is a harsh irony that here, in the depths of the great crater, they are also suffering the depths of an economic depression.  Trapped between two worlds -- their traditional own, and the capitalist outside -- some have been forced to sell their cattle, their livelihood, to survive.  Hope prevails, however, as the women of the region have organized to empower their businesses through education, training, and new skills.   

With a future that may look as bleak as the floor of the crater,
this Maasai herdsman faces harsh challenges under the pandemic
that has all but curtailed their ecotourism industry.

Information:
     Kideghesho, J.R., H.S. Kimaro, g. Mayengo, and A.W. Kisingo.  2021.  Will Tanzania's wildlife sector survive the COVID-19 pandemic?  Tropical Conservation Science 14:https://doi.org/10.1177/19400829211012682.