Conservation groups have filed a legal petition in Kenya seeking to halt the construction and expansion of tourist camps in the Maasai Mara National Reserve (Kenya's most celebrated wildlife sanctuary and host to one of Africa's great annual wildlife migrations), arguing that new developments — including a Ritz-Carlton safari camp — violate a 2023 moratorium on building in ecologically sensitive areas and lack valid environmental impact assessments. Wildlife surveys indicate the damage is already measurable: wildebeest numbers in the ecosystem dropped from 58,000 to 34,200 between 2023 and 2025, and data suggest the animals using one key migration corridor have fallen by nearly 90 percent in five years, with settlement and fencing across surrounding plains further hemming in surviving herds. The case, which names Marriott International, Lazizi Mara Limited and several Kenyan government bodies as respondents, has become a critical test of whether Kenya can enforce conservation rules against powerful tourism investors before irreversible harm is done to the ecosystem that underpins the country's safari industry.