Pastoralism in the Mara

The Lower Mara River Basin in Tanzania is home to the Kuria people, a group of people known for pastoralism, similar to the Masai people known throughout Kenya and Tanzania for their cattle culture. There are roughly 800,000 Kuria people living in the Mara Region of Tanzania and across the border into Kenya. Pastoralism is considered a type of agriculture where herds of animals are kept and grazed for personal consumption and for livelihood.

Animals feature as currency, like money in the bank, and cultural identity with pastoralists. Dowries are paid in numbers of cows or sheep. Meat and skin are used for trade or to capture cash in the local and regional markets. Shepherds travel with their herds in some cases. Animals are watered at the Mara River and its tributaries, creating a direct dependence on water quality and availability.

As pastoralist populations grow and land-use patterns change, the pressure on the Mara River's water resources increases. SELVA documents these dynamics and works to understand how pastoralism intersects with water security, ecosystem health, and the other livelihoods — fishing, farming, and mining — that coexist in the lower Mara River Basin.