The Soknot-Unganisha Landscape Project covers more than 150,000 square kilometers in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, focusing on conservation to protect vital biodiversity areas and secure wildlife migration corridors. While the project aims to conserve endangered species and generate carbon credits, it has generated considerable controversy. Over the past five years, Maasai communities in Mara, Arusha, and Kilimanjaro provinces—the same regions affected by the project—have faced widespread evictions and human rights violations, with some 150,000 people at risk of displacement.
The investigation aims, on the one hand, to collect, through fieldwork, the voices and testimonies of Maasai communities affected by the evictions and violations, while on the other hand, it seeks to expose the accountability and interests behind the project.
More generally, the project The Soknot Paradigm seeks to ask critical questions about the true benefits of top-down nature conservation initiatives that fail to integrate local communities into decision-making processes.
