As dawn breaks over the vast Sereng

As dawn breaks over the vast Serengeti an elephant herd slowly wanders to the side of the waterhole to drink, nearby a pride of lions is lying in the dry yellow grass and a wild dog howls in the distance. The waterhole is a gathering place for the wildlife in this part of the Serengeti and for people, too. At night, the animal kingdom reigns over the area but the day brings tourists to photograph the wildlife, biologists to study the ecosystem and Masai tribesmen to water their herds of cattle. It appears that animals and humans are managing to live together in harmony in one of the last great wildlife refuges in Africa.

The name for the Serengeti comes from a Masai word that means"the place where the land runs on forever but it may not be big enough for the Masai to continue their traditional way of life there for much longer. Although the Masai were once free to roam wherever they pleased, since 1959 they have been confined to one small part of the Serengeti ecosystem, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The area was established as a place where the Masai could continue with their nomadic lifestyle, where wildlife could be protected and tourism could flourish.

Wildlife and tourism are both doing very well but the same cannot be said for the Masai tribes. In the past fifty years the Masai population has increased from about 10,000 to over 50,000. The result is that there are too many people and too few resources to support the traditional Masai way of life. The land available for them to graze their cattle is limited and they are only allowed to grow enough food to live on for fear that large scale farming will affect the area's natural habitat.

The rise in the Maasai population is also worrying because of how it might affect the animals in the conservation area. Herds of wildebeest, zebras and other animals travel through the Ngorongoro region on their migratory paths. Maasai settlements, farms and grazing cattle could interfere with these important routes and conservationists do not want to causes any problems for the now growing numbers of animals in the area. So it is the Maasai who are being asked to move out of their homelands and to change their way of life, even though the conservation zone was originally created to be a multiple-use area not just for wildlife.

In the Masai village of Endulen women with shaved heads, gleaming silver jewellery and colourful red robes are busy washing clothes in the stream. Tall, spear-carrying warriors hiss at their cattle as they drive them down the dusty main street towards the only water supply in the village. There a hospital, a school and a market in this village of 8,000 but there is no fresh water supply, only the stream. A stream that supplies all the needs of the people and animals for drinking, washing, cooking and bathing. It is without doubt the life source of this bustling community, a community which continues to grow year by year.

Yet the conservation authorities do not want to provide the Masai with a reliable water supply. This is because they do not want to encourage settlements within the permanent conservation area. As far as the authorities are concerned, the Masai are only allowed to live in the area as nomads who make light use of the land. the Masai want to make the shift from a nomadic existence to a farming community with full amenities such as a water supply and electricity, then they should, once again, be moved out of the Ngorongoro region.

The Masai have other ideas, though. Namely that they have no intention of being moved on again. Although the old ways are slowly fading, they still keep their livestock and go out on the land, even if it is only for days at a time rather than months. In the village they work on vegetable plots outlawed by the authorities and live in permanent dwellings. The flowing traditional red robes and leather sandals are still worn by many Maea hu it wou can alen see trainers and T-shirts, too. As another cell phone starts to buzz it becomes obvious that the Maasai are making the long, slow transition to a more modern way of life.