Kenya's overcrowded safaris: Wildlife for who?

[00:00:00]You'd probably expect a wild life safari to look something like this. But these are some of the scenes playing out across Africa's safari industry. In recent years, there's been an explosion of safari camps, particularly in Kenya's Masai Mara, leading to intense over tourism. This includes one particularly controversial luxury development, which is marketing itself for its proximity to the great migration. It received intense criticism from local leaders, [clears throat] indigenous groups, and activists from all over the world for potentially disrupting this key migration route, threatening the very existence of the animals which tourists come to see.

[00:00:33]>> That was the last crossing point that ought to have been respected.

[00:00:37]>> As well as the traditional livelihoods of local communities. This dynamic, where outsiders desires are prioritized over local voices, has echoes in Africa's colonial past. When the demarcation of national parks led to the eviction of the indigenous groups who'd lived there for centuries. And while that era is technically over, we're still seeing the modern-day manifestations of an uneasy hierarchy between local voices and external pressures. Especially when most of the money coming from these enterprises isn't even reaching local communities.

[00:01:04]Tourism doesn't have to look like this.

[00:01:06]When it's done responsibly and in tandem with the people actually living there, it can have incredible benefits for both communities and wildlife.