Laetoli’s ancient footprints face tourist-driven destruction risk

Researchers warn that Tanzania’s Laetoli footprints—dating to 3.66 million years ago and made by Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as “Lucy”—are in danger of being damaged by state-backed tourism and other economic activity. In a new report publishe

For millions of years, Laetoli has held its quiet record of how early hominins moved through the landscape. Now, researchers say that record is being eroded—quite literally—by tourism-driven development in Tanzania.

The Laetoli site contains fossil footprints dated to 3.66 million years ago. The trackmaker is Australopithecus afarensis. the same species as the early human ancestor known as “Lucy.” But a new investigation warns the site is at risk of being destroyed by state-backed tourism and other economic activity.

Laetoli is not alone. The new report. published today in the journal Antiquity. says multiple archaeological sites that are critical to human history are under threat across Tanzania. It highlights ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani. an island and UNESCO World Heritage Site; rock art at Kondoa. also a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Dodoma region of Tanzania; and the Kaiija shrine and early Iron Age metal works in Katuruka. west of Lake Victoria.

At the heart of the warning is a claim that Tanzanian state groups charged with safeguarding these sites dismissed concerns raised by conservationists and local communities—choosing tourism interests over careful protection.

The Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, which has overall responsibility for the nation’s heritage sites, did not respond to a request for comment.

The researchers trace part of the problem to a 2008 shift in government priorities aimed at monetizing heritage sites by bringing in more tourists. According to Ichumbaki and Schmidt. infrastructure and buildings constructed to support that tourism were built without the impact assessments required by Tanzania. and—when World Heritage Sites are involved—without following international policy. The authors also say heavy machinery and laborers without training in preservation best practices damaged the sites during construction.

They add that the Tanzanian government gave oversight responsibilities to organizations without special training in preserving heritage sites.

In the case of Laetoli. Ichumbaki describes an approach that. to him. suggests officials did not treat the footprints as something that required extraordinary caution. “One would have expected at least as much care is done before the construction of the buildings.” Instead. he says. “it is done so crudely… a major building put on the site in the middle of the footprints. basically.”.

Schmidt. an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who has conducted field research in Tanzania for almost six decades. says Laetoli has also been affected by a tourist pathway. He describes a new path built on top of more recent but still ancient footprints that local Maasai people had held sacred. “Those footprints were impacted by this infrastructure based on the policy of commodification of heritage,” he says.

Kevin Hatala. an associate professor at Chatham University in Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study. speaks to what’s at stake scientifically. “Sites like [Laetoli] are really exceptional because they give you just a window into the world as it existed millions of years ago. ” he says. At Laetoli. he explains. volcanic ash layers extend over kilometers. preserving details that allow researchers to reconstruct “little snapshots of the animals” in that landscape and “of course. the hominins who lived in that landscape.”.

Other specialists emphasize what the footprints already tell us about evolution. “The footprints demonstrate without a doubt that walking on two legs (bipedalism) is an ancient human adaptation. ” says Jeremy DeSilva. a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College. DeSilva was also not involved in the new study. but he adds that walking upright was “the key evolutionary innovation that launched this marvelous human experiment.”.

The researchers argue the core issue is not just scientific loss but the decision-making that precedes it—how heritage management is weighed against development. Ichumbaki and Schmidt say they hope their report pushes the Tanzanian government and international groups toward urgent action to conserve Laetoli and other threatened sites.

Engaging local communities, they argue, must be part of any rescue plan. For instance, the Kaiija site carries deep spiritual and cultural meaning for the Haya people, and Ichumbaki is Haya. The study notes that in the past, the community acted as stewards of the site.

Purity Kiura. an archaeologist at the National Museums of Kenya who was not involved in the new report. warns that balancing conservation and tourism revenue is rarely simple. She points to work on conserving a 1.5-million-year-old footprint site in northern Kenya. describing projects where researchers engaged local communities to understand the site’s cultural importance.

“The footprint site is not only a scientific resource but also a place that is deeply connected to the community’s identity. traditions. history and values. ” Kiura explains. “Consequently. strengthening the community’s expertise and capacity to participate in its management and preservation was a critical component of the project.”.

Hatala puts the risk in blunt terms: there is always danger when permanent construction goes up over an unexplored area. “There’s always going to be that risk when you’re constructing something permanent on top of an unexplored area … that could conceal something that’s really interesting and important that we will never know about,” he says.

In Laetoli’s case, he adds, the scientific uniqueness is hard to overstate: “there really is nothing else like it in the world.” If the site is damaged, he warns, what is lost cannot be recovered. “Footprints across a landscape can’t be locked up in a museum.”

Schmidt and Ichumbaki argue time still remains. but they are clear that meaningful change has to happen inside government decision-making—not only through outside pressure. “The most fundamental step is that there be internal change because external forces have only limited effect. ” Schmidt says. referring to Tanzanian state officials. “They have the capacity, they have the instrument by which change can be affected.”.

Ichumbaki puts urgency into everyday language. “The sites are at a critical situation at the moment, and the time to act is now,” he says. “We shouldn’t really continue waiting to see these sites being destroyed in the name of development. The government in Tanzania and the international community need to intervene to say something must be done to salvage the sites. It is either now or never.”.

Laetoli Australopithecus afarensis Lucy Tanzania Antiquity journal UNESCO World Heritage heritage conservation tourism paleoanthropology human evolution Maasai sacred footprints