Add your voice to banish Trouble from Paradise
Campaign news and developments
Flickr photos
6 December 2008
Trouble in Paradise project manager Emma Eastwood recently travelled to Kenya and met with the Endorois. Check out the photos from her trip on our recently updated Flickr photostream.
The trip to the land of the Queen
2 December 2008
Endorois Welfare Council leader Wilson Kipkazi was in London for the launch of the Trouble in Paradise campaign. Read about his impression of the capital city on the MRG blog.
Check out the international press coverage of the Trouble in Paradise campaign launch
Bak turist-fasaden lever urinnbyggerne i fattigdom
Bistandsaktuelt, Norway, 4 December 2008
What is World Responsible Tourism Day?
Radio Netherlands Worldwide 13 November 2008Comunidad indígena keniana expulsada reclama su parte de los beneficios
EFE, Spain, 11 November 2008Evicted Kenyan indigenous community demands share of tourism revenue on World Responsible Tourism Day
12 November 2008
Wilson Kikpazi, of the Endorois Welfare Council, is in London to make a special appeal on behalf his community on the occasion of World Responsible Tourism Day. Read more...
Cutting a shine on the Endorois dancefloor
5 November 2008
Emma Eastwood, MRG's Trouble in Paradise Campaign Manager, rounds off her trip to the Rift Valley discussing Obama ‘the Kenyan wonder boy' and struts her stuff dancing with the Endorois.
Messages from campaign supporters
"One wonders if tourists are even made aware of the situation, especially at the time of booking." David Marchesi, UK, 15 August
"The Endorois community have a right to exist and enjoy the fruits of what they have ably conserved for time immemorial."Muzamilu Kigeri Bisanga, Uganda, 29 August
Endorois take tourism lead
In September, the Endorois community, tired of waiting for the government to act, met with bosses of ethical tourism businesses in Kenya, to begin developing their own tourism initiatives around Lake Bogoria in the Rift Valley. Endorois representatives learned about positive examples of community-based eco-tourism in the Maasai Mara, where ethical tour companies are working togther with indigenous communities to discover how they can best benefit from tourism in the game park.
Endorois on BBC World Service
Also in September, Wilson Kipsang Kipkazi, of the Endorois Welfare Council, was publicising our campaign live across the African continent, on BBC World Service Africa Have Your Say phone in programme. He attracted lots of support!
Check out our new campaign page - Meet the Endorois
16 October 2008
Read about the everyday lives of community members. Emma Eastwood, Trouble in Paradise Campaign Manager, gains an insight into the hopes and dreams of Endorois women and men during her fact-finding visit to Kenya in September 2008. Read more...
The road to Lake Bogoria is littered with.....goats, sheep and cows...
October 9 2008
Emma Eastwood, Trouble in Paradise Campaign manager, is in Kenya to visit the Endorois community. After travelling through the mighty Rift Valley, she ends up in the Lake Bogoria National Reserve - the Endorois ancestral land from which they have been expelled. Read Emma's blog.
Mega-tourism determined to steamroll indigenous Garifuna rights
18 September 2008
The ‘Micos Golf and Beach Project’ in Tela Bay on Honduras’ north coast is going ahead, advancing upon the territory of the indigenous Garifuna people from all sides. The project, backed by the Inter-American Development Bank, has already completely displaced one of the five Garifuna Afro-descendent communities that have lived in the area for centuries and whose populations number approximately 100 000 in total. Read more...
Wilson Kipkazi, of the Endorois Welfare Council, sent Trouble in Paradise campaign supporters this message:
9 September 2008
"The launch of the Trouble in Paradise online campaign is a mile stone in the Endorois community’s struggle to be recognized as a people who have a right to the natural resources on their land. The world is a global village, and to address issues online will expose human rights violations against minority and indigenous peoples that have been conducted until now with impunity. Natural justice must prevail at all times."
Four weeks into the campaign and we’re delighted to announce that we have 260 signatures for our online petition in support of the Endorois, a pastoralist community from Kenya, evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for a game reserve in the 1970s.
However, we have a long way to go if we’re to meet our goal of 5000 signatures by the end of 2008. If you haven’t already done so please add your voice and banish trouble from paradise by signing the petition.
Indigenous peoples' fears of displacement laid to rest
4 September 2008
MRG's Trouble in Paradise campaign is working for the rights of the Endorois community of Kenya, removed from their land and replaced with a game park. Other indigenous groups, such as the Mursi tribe of Ethiopia, have been imperiled by Western aspirations of wilderness conservation, but there is hope when activists from around the world stand alongside the indigenous community to demand justice, as they have done with the Mursi. Read more...