Maasai

Maasai Mara, Kenya – The Maasai Mara, Kenya’s most famous wildlife reserve, is one of Africa’s best-known safari destinations. Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors travel to the reserve, generating millions of dollars for Kenya’s economy and supporting jobs, businesses and local communities.

But as luxury camps and lodges spread across the reserve, concerns are growing over the environmental cost of tourism. Conservationists warn that unchecked development is damaging wildlife habitats and threatening one of the world’s greatest natural spectacles, the annual migration of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles between Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The debate has now reached Kenya’s courts.

A legal battle over the Mara

The future of the Maasai Mara is increasingly being contested in court. Conservation groups have filed several cases challenging the construction and expansion of tourist camps inside and around the reserve, arguing that some developments were approved without adequate environmental safeguards.

The latest petition, filed by the East Africa Law Society, Natural Justice, JustAct and the Africa Centre for Peace and Human Rights, seeks conservatory orders to halt the construction and expansion of accommodation facilities in the Maasai Mara National Reserve pending the hearing of the case.

The petition names the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Marriott International, Lazizi Mara Limited, the Narok County government, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the attorney general, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), The Safari Collection Ltd and Minor Hotels Ltd.

Court documents filed by advocate Gichohi Waweru challenge the construction and operation of the Ritz-Carlton Maasai Mara Safari Camp, alleging that it was built in a protected ecological zone despite a 2023 moratorium on new tourism accommodation in sensitive areas of the reserve under the Maasai Mara Management Plan 2023-32.

The petition also claims that the camp lacks a valid environmental impact assessment licence and sits along a key wildebeest migration corridor.

The petitioners are seeking an audit of all lodges in protected zones, warning that continued development could cause irreversible damage to the Mara ecosystem.

The legal battle has become a test of whether Kenya can balance conservation with tourism, one of the country’s most important economic sectors.

Kelvin Kubai, an advocate at the High Court of Kenya, told Al Jazeera that tourism should never come at the expense of wildlife and the environment.

“When the interests of wildlife and nature conflict with tourism, the rights of nature are supreme. Any interaction between tourists, wild animals and the environment should not come at the expense of the animals. The rights of human beings in the Mara are not above those of animals and nature,” he said.

The disappearing migration

Every year, more than a million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles move between the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara in search of fresh grazing land. The migration sustains predators, attracts visitors from around the world and plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.

Kenya has, however, seen a significant decline in the number of wildebeest making the journey into the Maasai Mara. Conservationists say that construction, vehicle traffic and human activity near migration routes are disrupting animal movements and placing additional pressure on wildlife already affected by climate change.

According to a Kenyan government wildlife survey whose findings were released after fieldwork conducted between June 2024 and August 2025, populations of several species, including lions, buffalo, hirola antelope and wildebeest, have fallen sharply. Wildebeest numbers declined from 58,000 to 34,200 between 2023 and 2025.

Scientific data released in early 2026 showed that the number of wildebeest using one of the key migration routes in the Greater Mara ecosystem had fallen by almost 90 percent in just five years.

The pressure from tourism development has become a central concern. Despite the 2023 moratorium on new tourism accommodation in sensitive parts of the reserve, conservationists say new camps have continued to emerge while existing facilities have sought to expand.

The moratorium was introduced to curb overdevelopment, reduce pressure on wildlife habitats and protect migration corridors, but conservationists argue that enforcement has been weak.

Samwel Odhiambo, a climate activist and founder of the Climate Awareness Defenders community-based organisation, told Al Jazeera that conservation must take precedence over commercial interests.

“The government must rein in investors who do not really care about conservation because everyone has a responsibility to the environment and the animals. What we are seeing today is a result of developments that are profit-driven, to the point where lodges are built on riverbanks, too close to animals, and on migration routes, affecting especially female animals as they lose their habitats for nurturing and delivering their babies.”

Odhiambo argued that the same level of environmental protection applied along Kenya’s coast should be extended to the Mara.

“Kenya’s coast at times generates more tourism revenue than the Maasai Mara, but you will not find developers building on the beach or in the waters,” he said.

Maps published in December 2025 by ecologists at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in the Atlas of Ungulate Migration showed that migration routes supporting more than 100,000 wildebeest as recently as 2020 now support fewer than 30,000.

The report estimated that the wildebeest population, which numbered between 120,000 and 150,000 in the 1970s, had fallen to about 26,700 by 2024. Settlement and fencing across the Loita Plains and northern Mara Plains have severely restricted migration, confining surviving herds to a patchwork of conservancies surrounding the reserve.

Although these figures come from different wildlife surveys and migration studies, they all point to a sharp decline in wildebeest numbers and movements across the Greater Mara ecosystem.

When tourism threatens itself

For decades, the Maasai Mara has been Kenya’s premier tourism destination, earning billions of shillings annually and supporting thousands of jobs, from safari guides and hotel workers to transport operators, craft sellers and Maasai communities.

But conservationists and tourism analysts warn that overdevelopment could begin undermining the very industry that depends on the reserve’s wildlife and wilderness.

Tourism operators say overcrowding, rising park fees and increasing competition from other regional destinations have made the safari market more competitive. Conservation groups argue that continued habitat loss and pressure on wildlife corridors could further erode the Mara’s appeal to visitors seeking intact wilderness and abundant wildlife.

Al Jazeera contacted Marriott International, Lazizi Mara Limited, the Narok County Government, NEMA and KWS for comment. Marriott and Lazizi have previously said the Ritz-Carlton Maasai Mara Safari Camp received the necessary approvals and complied with Kenyan environmental and planning requirements, while Kenyan authorities have defended the project as being located in a designated tourism investment zone under the Maasai Mara Management Plan 2023-32.

Wangari Kebuchi, an economist and managing director of Expertise Global, told Al Jazeera that the conservancy model offered the most viable path forward, provided it was accompanied by stronger oversight.

“The Maasai Mara is one of Kenya’s biggest economic assets and a major source of foreign exchange, but Narok County depends too heavily on it for revenue. If wildlife numbers decline because of overdevelopment, tourism demand will eventually fall. The conservancy model will help by protecting wildlife corridors and limiting visitor numbers, but it needs stronger oversight. Future tourism growth should be guided by ecological limits, not commercial demand, so the Mara remains both environmentally healthy and economically sustainable,” Kebuchi said.

For conservationists, the court cases are about far more than a single luxury camp. They could determine whether Kenya is willing to enforce ecological limits in one of Africa’s most celebrated landscapes.

As the legal battle unfolds, the question is whether the Maasai Mara can remain both a thriving wildlife ecosystem and a sustainable source of livelihoods and tourism revenue.

“Future tourism growth should be guided by ecological limits, not commercial demand, so the Mara remains both environmentally healthy and economically sustainable,” Kebuchi said.

Monduli, Tanzania – When drought wiped out most of her family’s livestock, 30-year-old Nesirkar Loongidong’i, a Maasai mother of four from Selela village in northern Tanzania, found herself with very few options. The dry season had already killed most of their animals.

Today, she makes a living growing and selling drought-resistant livestock fodder.

“Before I planted fodder, I lost most of our goats. Now, people come from other villages to buy grass, and I can support my children. I don’t fear drought anymore,” Loongidong’i told Al Jazeera.

With the income, she has built a house and bought five goats.

Loongidong’i’s story is part of a much larger and fast-growing shift. Across northern Tanzania, Maasai women, part of a community of about 430,000 people, are turning fodder production from a survival tactic into a climate-adaptation business. The work is coordinated by the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) and is spreading across pastoral districts.

The PWC is a women-led membership organisation working across three northeastern districts, covering more than 28,000 square kilometres (10,810 square miles) and serving about 456,000 people, most of them Maasai pastoralists. Founded in 1997, it now counts around 6,500 members in 90 villages, with years of work focused on land rights, economic empowerment, and girls’ education.

For Loongidong’i, it all comes down to growing pasture grass without irrigation. Because demand remains steady, so does her income, and with it, her household’s stability. Today, she lives in a home with a metal roof, and nearby, her goats graze in a fenced area as their numbers slowly grow again.

According to Tanzania’s Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, at least 306,358 animals, including cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys, died between September 2021 and January 2022 due to prolonged drought. In Simanjiro district alone, 92,047 livestock were lost, wiping out livelihoods across pastoral communities.

In response, the PWC established 10 major grass seed banks across eight villages in Monduli and Longido districts. Today, about 75 hectares (185 acres) are under fodder production, with another 37 hectares (90 acres) expected to be added in the 2025-2026 season. Around 250 women directly manage these farms, while thousands of herders now depend on them for feed during dry seasons.

The impact is already visible. In 2025, a single seed bank earned 6.6 million Tanzanian shillings (about $2,500) from seed sales, along with 1,111 hay bales sold at 6,000 shillings ($2.30) each. For many women, this has shifted their role from dependents to economic providers.

Backed by organisations such as the Global Fund for Women and Oxfam, the PWC is now seen as offering a replicable model for protecting a livestock economy worth millions of dollars.

This shift is no longer limited to survival. Across northern Tanzania, it is becoming a quiet but steady form of enterprise, reshaping daily life in pastoral communities.

From survival to business

In Longido and Monduli, deep in northern Tanzania, Maasai life has been slowly changing. As traditional grazing patterns weaken under worsening droughts, women are increasingly taking on roles once tied only to herding, now growing pasture for income on open communal land.

Loongidong’i explains that what began as a way to survive dry years has now become a reliable source of income for many women. In the past, planting hardy grasses such as Cenchrus ciliaris was simply about keeping livestock alive. Today, it is also a business.

To respond to declining rainfall, women grow resilient species such as Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) and Masai love grass (Eragrostis superba) on designated community plots. These grasses stay green longer than natural pasture during dry periods. Once harvested, they are bundled and sold to local herders as animal feed.

“Seeds are also saved and traded later when demand rises,” Loongidong’i says, adding that this cycle now supports many households across arid areas.

Herding families also benefit during drought periods, when natural grazing disappears and these managed plots become a lifeline for livestock.

The seed bank project, managed by Naisho, the group Loongidong’i works with under the PWC, generated about 6.6 million Tanzanian shillings ($2,514) from seed sales, alongside more than 1,000 bales of grass. Small in scale, but steady in output, it has proven what organised local production can achieve.

For the Maasai, cattle are more than livestock; they are the centre of daily life, economy, and identity. When rains fail, the impact is immediate: animals weaken, and families struggle.

As in many pastoral communities, women carry much of the responsibility for daily survival, from food preparation to fetching water and caring for children. Now, alongside those roles, they are also becoming earners.

“Women who once depended entirely on their husbands now have their own income,” says Rachel Letiety, a founding member of the PWC. “Families are becoming more stable. Men are beginning to value women’s contributions, especially during droughts.”

Ongoing challenges

Still, the progress comes with challenges.

Loongidong’i says some farms are affected when weeds take over and when fences break, allowing livestock, and sometimes wild animals, to destroy carefully cultivated plots.

“I have seen invasive plants ruin large parts of our farms,” she says. “And sometimes animals enter and destroy what we have worked on for months. It is not easy to guard these fields every day.”

She also points to tensions within groups, where disagreements sometimes arise over responsibilities and how income is shared.

At present, with support from organisations such as Justdiggit, Trees for the Future, and Swissaid, around 200 women are directly involved in the project. Many more benefit indirectly, especially during drought periods when pasture becomes scarce.

“This work prevents our cattle from dying and keeps them healthy,” says Nairiyamu Laizer, a mother of three and secretary of the Naisho group. “It also helps sustain the bulls we raise.”

“If all women take up this opportunity, these projects can lift our economy,” she adds.

“We harvest the grass and sell it; some buyers use it for cattle feed, others for thatching houses. We also grind some of it into animal feed,” she says.

For Loongidong’i and many Maasai women, growing fodder is no longer just about surviving difficult seasons. It has become a new beginning, reshaping livelihoods and the place of women in pastoral life.

“Now women help bring money into their homes,” she says, “and families are becoming more stable.”

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.