'Land means life': Tanzania's Maasai fear their existence is under threat

Reports that homes belonging to Maasai people were torched have upped the stakes in their long-running land dispute with the Tanzanian government

For Lilian Looloitai, a Maasai woman from east Africa, "land means life". For her nomadic tribe, who have grazed cattle in north Tanzania's highlands for centuries, a bitter dispute playing out on the edge of the Serengeti national park brings not just uncertainty, but threatens their very existence. It is the latest example of the growing tensions between wildlife conservation, which brings revenue to the country, and the rights of nomads, who need land to survive.

"How long will the government continue to expand the national parks? It is for wildlife, but we are human beings," said Looloitai, the managing director of Cords Limited, a rights group based in Arusha. "As pastoralists, we are being undermined."