Hmmm......this morning someone had posted an article RE massive expansion of the number of lodges over the next year or so! i can't find the thread.....anyone seen it!

I did make a reply there stating that "Honey" the cheetah's death is related to all the factors stated in the article.....

Very bizarre!

Your'e not going mad, I saw it too and can't find it. Anyone, ideas?

Surely there is some error. Fodor's wouldn't be so heavy handed as to pull a post for political or self serving reasons? I hope!

here's the text of the deleted post:

This appeared in today's Telegraph newspaper

Property sharks benefit from Masai land grab
By Mike Pflanz in Olare Orok
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/08/2007

Kenya's Masai Mara game park faces a disastrous surge in tourism after a government decision to give away land around its borders.

Unscrupulous investors looking to sidestep a freeze on new hotels inside the reserve have rushed to offer new Masai landowners a relative fortune of up to £12,000 each for their 150-acre plots.

At least 23 new tented camps and larger lodges have been built or are under construction immediately outside the park, to add to 40 or more already there.

The result will be a surge in tourism as the number of hotel beds jumps by a third, from 1,500 to an estimated 1,900.

The knock-on effect of another 300 to 400 tourists a day in the 600 sq mile reserve would be catastrophic, with greater harassment of wildlife, track erosion and pollution, conservationists warn.

At one Mara river crossing point yesterday, where migrating wildebeest risk hungry crocodiles as they try to reach fresh pasture, 56 vans filled with camera-toting tourists lined both banks.

"That does really spoil the moment," said Katherine Maunder, 32, a fashion designer from Oxford on a honeymoon safari with her husband, Marcus, 34.

This fresh threat to the reserve follows approval from Kenya's lands ministry to subdivide vast common ranches where the Masai have grazed their cattle for generations into tens of thousands of individual plots. These will be handed to every adult Masai tribesman who registers.

Aside from the new camps, several of the new land-owners have fenced their land to plant wheat or barley, blocking wild-life migration paths.

Kenya's authorities have long been concerned about congestion in the park and uncontrolled construction on its boundaries.

Tourism officials tried to impose a moratorium on new lodges while they calculate the exact "carrying capacity" of the reserve, as The Daily Telegraph reported in January.

But senior figures claim it is proving "counter-productive" as camps spring up regardless, many without proper approval.

What is needed, according to hoteliers and conservationists, is a new approach to managing the Masai Mara.

Small-scale camps outside the reserve with no more than one tent per 700 acres of wilderness should pay rent to the new Masai landowners.

"This will create protected areas for wildlife, prevent mass tourism, and generate a fair income for the Masai communities who own the land," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya tourist board.

Two projects have already been established. A group of 156 Masai have joined their plots together to create the sprawling Olare Orok conservancy, 10 minutes north of the gates to the Mara reserve.

Three small camps, including one run by Mr Grieves-Cook, pay £70 monthly rent to each of the Masai, who promise not to graze cows there, build villages or chop wood.

"They are sending their children to school - even their daughters," said Sammy Ole Mpusia, 32, who helped set up the Ol Kinyei conservancy. "There are health dispensaries: -people who cannot pay hospital bills are being helped."

Other tribesmen are queuing up to join. "People who have sold their plots are finding that their lives are not good," said Jackson Ole Sayialel, 23, who guides tourists at a 20-bed eco-lodge under the pioneering land-lease scheme.

"They are wasting their money on alcohol, and in a few years they will have nothing themselves and nothing for their children's future."

Mara marvels

• On the plains 170 miles south-west of Nairobi, the Masai Mara was created as a 200 sq mile game reserve in 1947, and expanded to 600 sq miles in 1968

• It is part of the 15,500 sq mile Serengeti ecosystem, which lies largely in neighbouring Tanzania

• It is home to 2.5 million herbivores including zebra, hartebeest, topi, elephant, buffalo, gazelle and a small population of black rhino

• Predatory cats include lion, leopard and cheetah. BBC's Big Cat Diary is mostly filmed there

• It is known for the annual July to September migration, when 1.3 million wildebeest, 350,000 Thompson's gazelle and 200,000 zebra move north from Tanzania for fresh pasture

• More than 450 species of birds, with 57 different birds of prey, have been spotted

• It is visited by up to 2,500 tourists a day in peak season, each paying £20 a day entrance fees

• There are more than 40 permanent lodges and hotels - plus dozens of temporary tented camps during the busiest times

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai...eamasai117.xml

wildcatzoo,
Thank you for your posting. It is sad indeed but better to know the facts then to plan a trip one might regret.
Regards-Chuck

And I guess this will be deleted very soon...

Copying and publishing copyrighted text on this forum is not allowed. Read the forum rules.

I think the post was pulled because Fodor's rules don't allow large segments of copyrighted text to appear. Better to just give the link to the article or summarize the points.

This thread will probably disappear as well.

CW

very sad news.
is 56 vans at the river crossing common?

It's ironic that first people complain that there's no rooms available in the Mara during the migration... and then... when they actually build more room people still complain!!

At least they are small tented camps and not the large scale 5-star hotels (Serena, Sopa).

Kenya continues to lag behind the other major safari countries in land management, sad state of affairs.

Recently I read that Africa hosts only 4% of world's tourism and that it must be a goal to increase this up to 10%.

So my guess for the not so far future of safari travel:

Either you pay US$1500++ per night and will have exclusive game sightings, or you will encounter situations as those in the Mara on a more regular base.

what a sobering report. Many African countries are going to face serious conservation issues going forward, including neighboring Tanzania. Let the games begin.

Thanks wildcatzoo....this is the report i saw yesterday.....

Nyama, i agree....

Some interesting information?

http://kumekucha1.blogspot.com/2007/...asai-mara.html

http://kumekucha1.blogspot.com/2007/...ra-part-2.html

http://kumekucha1.blogspot.com/2007/...mara-land.html

http://kumekucha1.blogspot.com/2007/...president.html