The USAID programme is being implemented in community conservancies owned and managed by local communities around Amboseli and Tsavo national parks to ensure sustainability and increased social and economic welfare of residents.
The five-year Sustainable Management of Amboseli and Tsavo Landscapes Project funded by USAID and implemented by IFAW was started in 2019 and ends in the next year.
Human-wildlife conflicts have for many years been a challenge in conservation areas due to climate change.
USAID through the International Fund for Animal Welfare donated five vehicles and 21 motorcycles amounting to Sh46.9 million to improve response to incidents of human-wildlife conflict in those parks.
Tsavo Trust and Amboseli Ecosystem Trust received two vehicles each, Big life Limited received one motorcycle, while Taita Taveta Wildlife Conservancies Association received one vehicle and 20 motorcycles.
IFAW president Azzedine Downes said the partnerships and collaborations build credibility and successful implementation of conservation efforts outside government protected areas, which are critical for the survival of key wildlife species.
“Local community members have graciously provided their land for wildlife to move freely within their home ranges which can cause some challenges,” he said.
“Therefore providing these equipment fosters coexistence of people and wildlife, which is critical for securing biodiversity, enhancing natural resilience to climate change while improving the livelihood of people from tourism revenue,” he said.
He said this is a vision that connects all of the things that people talk about from Kenya all the way to Zimbabwe because there is an urgency to ensure there is connectivity and room for wildlife to survive.
The IFAW president said their plan is to see animals and people thriving together in the place that they call home because the fundamental point of it is respect.
Downes said it is unfair to ask humans to live with the wildlife that can kill them, their children and families if they do not have protection.
“We are not going to survive and be successful if we do not have the players behind us. So I will never let your lives be built down to a piece of data and statistics because you are not a statistic and that is what we believe at IFAW. We believe that we must work with the communities to save wildlife, your lives and the planet,” he said.
He spoke at Lumo community wildlife conservancy during the handing over of the equipment to be used for patrols.
Lumo was established in the late 1990s when three ranches (Luwalenyi, Mramba and Ooza) joined hands.
Luwalenyi contributed 28,000 acres, Mramba and Ooza contributed 10,000 acres each.
Taita Taveta Conservancy Association chairman Mcharo Bongosa said the Taita ranches and conservancies comprise a critically important area in the Tsavo conservation area, which serves as a wildlife corridor between Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks hence enabling trans-boundary movement into Mkomazi game reserve in Tanzania.
He said the ranches cover an area of about 1 million acres of land which makes a total of 24 per cent of the land mass of Taita Taveta county and acts as a source of livelihood for about 40,000 households.
“Through community conservation efforts, the ranches and conservancies have been able to provide an opportunity to deliver tangible wildlife benefits to the communities while at the same time securing space for wildlife,” he said.
Mcharo said despite the Tsavo ecosystem holding such a critical wildlife population of national importance, the landscapers in the past lost interest and support from conservation organizations and donors compared to similar ecosystems in Kenya.
However, while the Tsavo protected areas are expansive, the adjacent dispersal area lacks protection, well-organized community engagement and derived limited local benefits.
By December 2022, Charo said they had around 41 incidents of human-wildlife conflict reported in three months in the region.
“The high human population growth and encroachment of the conservation area within Tsavo have contributed to the common cases of human wildlife conflicts in the landscape. The equipment will move a big way by helping our rangers in patrolling the ranches and will also be useful in implementing the project,” he said.
He said five years after the project, they will work with IFAW to form more programmes to continue conserving, developing, and increasing livelihoods for people in this country.
Tourism, Wildlife and National Heritage PS Silvia Museiya said Tsavo and Amboseli are arid and semi-arid areas, and the economies of these landscapes are predominantly livestock and tourism-driven.
“Other opportunities that we can tap into include carbon credits and green energy development that create multiple and additional income streams for the communities while promoting nature-based solutions to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation,” she said.
She said partnerships and collaborations form two of the three pillars of Kenya Wildlife Service for the 2019-2024 strategic plan and that as a national government, they appreciate the support from USAID, IFAW and other partners.
The PS said conservation has many players and conflicts and there is a general lack of coordination and sometimes suspicion.
“At the ministry, we are offering to help you coordinate because we still have many communities which are yet to be reached out to. The conservations are important because we avoid duplication of work and places therefore we need to do data-driven initiatives so that we can reach out to as many communities as possible in all conservation areas across the country,” she said.
She said there is a need for more vehicles and motorbikes to go to other conservancies for sustainability.
“I want to challenges USAID and IFAW that any time they have a project the fact that they have a monitoring and evaluation component in it, make sure you have human wildlife-conflict component so that while people are benefiting from the project, anticipate that there are going to be some conflicts and help us guard the budget,” she said.
Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime said the equipment will play a strategic role in meeting project objectives and goals.
He said his administration is keen on having and giving maximum support for the sustainable management of conservation as well as engaging strategic partnerships.
“The protection and preservation of national wildlife and its biodiversity plays an integral role in the environmental tourism and biodiversity sector in the country but what will remain the biggest challenge to the growth of tourism, biodiversity sector and conservation efforts is the acceptance and appreciation of the efforts by the community,” he said.
“Let us therefore work towards inclusion of the community who are part of the ecosystem. Let us continuously and decisively deal with human-wildlife conflict,” he said.
Mwadime said last year there was an increase of reported incidents of human-wildlife conflicts due to the severe drought experienced in the county.
He said that the project aims to strengthen the recognition of conservation interventions and reducing the response time for human-wildlife conflict incidents.
“The support will go a long way in fostering and reconciling the human and wildlife needs, the project moral seek to improve the livelihood of people through increased benefits drawn from wildlife. Therefore it is an important and integral process that gets the communities on board towards alleviating human-wildlife conflicts,” he said.
