The political ecology of pastoralism, conservation, and *development in the Arusha Region of northern Tanzania

This dissertation examines the political, economic, and social context of pastoralist peoples and the natural environment in the Arusha Region of northern Tanzania. Its two empirical foci are the Maasai people of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) and the Barabaig community living around the Hanang Wheat Complex (HWC) in Hanang District. Historically, pastoralists have been seen as a "problem" by African colonial and postcolonial states, conservation organizations, and development specialists.;This dissertation reverses the traditional formulation of the "problem of pastoralism" and examines how African states and international conservation and development projects have instead posed a "problem for pastoralists." The idea that pastoralism is a "problem" has served as a legitimizing force for a broad series of initiatives aimed at expanding state and international control over rural African people's and their environment. The dissertation develops a theoretical structure drawing on literature from the fields of political ecology and governance. It synthesizes ideas from these two fields in order to better explore the dissertation's empirical cases, and to promote conversations between two bodies of thought that have generally not been in contact with each other.;The Maasai/NCA case is traced from the creation of the NCA in 1959 through to the General Management Plan process of the 1990s. The Barabaig/HWC case begins with the Tanzania-Canada Wheat Project in 1970 and continues until the Canadian-funded Hanang Participatory Development Fund of the late 1990s. In both of these cases, the dissertations demonstrates that a state of discursive dependence exists. International technical experts and organizations hold the upper hand in the creation of discourses of conservation, development, and pastoralism. The management of the NCA as a de facto national park and the introduction of mechanized agriculture at the HWC illustrate these patters of discursive dependence.;Even in the 1990s, which gave rise to a pastoralist non-governmental organization movement in Tanzania, this state of discursive dependence has continued. The nature and form of pastoralist resistance to previous projects of resource alienation is still constrained and shaped by non-African discourses on African peoples and their landscapes.