This chapter covers three main aspects of Maasai ecology. Firstly, the ways in which past livestock management and development policies have interacted with Maasai social and ecological organisation are discussed. Secondly, demographic trends are analysed and their implications for living standards and future management considered. Lastly, our food survey is described. This completes the link between our information on livestock production and current conditions of human subsistence. The milk, grain and meat components of the diet are quantified, food adequacy estimated and grain requirements estimated for different areas and seasons. Our results underline the special problems of Maasai subsistence in NCA.

Past interventions in Maasailand

Kinter olemodaipee kintoki oleng'eno We begin by being foolish and become wise by experience (Maasai saying)

The history of the last hundred years reveals the fundamental importance of Maasai social structures in determining the outcome of different attempts by outsiders to manipulate their pastoralist system. It therefore has implications for management in NCA. There is a vast literature on past interventions from the early colonial days to post-Independence times (Waller 1976, Anderson & Grove 1987, Raikes 1981, Evangelou 1984, Moris 1981, Hoben 1976, Jacobs 1978, Galaty 1980).