Tanzanian pastoralists risk dispossession through geospatial surveys

The article “Resisting legibility: state and conservation boundaries, pastoralism, and the risk of dispossession through geospatial surveys in Tanzania” by J. Bluwstein, published in Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 6(1), illustrates how the use of modern geospatial surveying technology in Tanzania failed to resolve a boundary conflict between the state and nature conservation authorities on one side and a pastoralist community on the other. Far from fixing a contested geography by resurveying its boundaries and facilitating stakeholder participation for conflict resolution, digital cartography made visible and reanimated the buried history of mismatched and conflicting logics between state-led territorial administration and conservation and pastoral land-use practices. State and conservation officials have relied on the insights from fact-finding exercises to dismiss rural land-use practices that are not represented in official maps. Pastoralists resist these state- and conservation-centred cartographic practices of fixed boundaries to maintain a historical, vital geography of seasonal access to pastures and water. The article highlights the pitfalls of geospatial land surveys and fact-finding exercises that unearth a boundary conflict previously hidden from the state’s view. Through enhanced legibility, rural communities may become visible to the state, risking dispossession and eviction.

Posted on 21 December 2019 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure