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Tanzania: Evicted herders win 10-year battle for compensation (Trust)

A group of more than 600 Tanzanian farmers will receive compensation from the government, more than 10 years after they were evicted from their homes and grazing lands.

The livestock keepers and their families were forcibly removed from their villages in southern Tanzania’s Ihefu Basin.

The wetlands in the Ihefu Basin protect the Great Ruaha River, which is the country’s major source of hydroelectricity. In 2006, the government decided to expand Ruaha National Park to protect the water and wetlands after seasonal drying had slowed water flow and energy production.

An initial payment of 362 million Tanzanian shillings ($181,000 US) has been set aside for the villagers. But community rights activists say the compensation is inadequate. Villagers lost livestock, crops, food stocks, and their homes when forced to move.

To read the full article, go to: http://news.trust.org/item/20160808000234-c0vwz/ [1]

Photo: Helen Kijo-Bisimba, the Executive Director of Legal Human Rights Centre in Tanzania.