When the Gashaka Gumti Game Reserve in Nigeria was gazetted in 1972, resident Fulani pastoralists participated in planning and the demarcation of enclaves - for settlement, cultivation and grazing - to be controlled by traditional leaders. This short piece reported how the enclaves, which had remained functional even when state management effectively ceased in the 1980s, collapsed when the game reserve was redesignated as a national park in 1991. Residents feared that they would soon be evicted and deserted the enclaves, thereby allowing the entry of herds from outside the national park. The Nigerian Conservation Foundation and WWF, funded by ODA, were now making efforts to re-establish the livelihoods and tenure system of the Fulani pastoralists.