That’s why government officials recently announced a change in the legal status of Ngorongoro that will prohibit human settlement inside and near it. The decision will force authorities to remove nearly 100,000 people — mostly Maasai pastoralists who have used Ngorongoro’s vast grasslands to sustain their seminomadic cattle-herding way of life for generations — from the protected area. According to the government, the Maasai must be removed to conserve the land and protect biodiversity. The Maasai argue that removal puts their lives and cultural survival at risk and that the government should instead expand tourism in a way that respects their rights. Yet in many cases people are already living and surviving off these lands — indeed, an estimated 476 million Indigenous peoples dwell on lands that are home to 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

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Organizations: World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law, United Nations, Indigenous Peoples Locations: Mara, Kenya, United States, France, Germany, Japan