•Conservationists said the move would affect the free movement of some 2,000 Amboseli elephants as other wildlife and Maasai cows were also under threat.
•Within the corridor, most landowners earn their living from livestock, complemented by wildlife tourism.
When Harji Mavji and Suresh Kurji Kerai, representing KiliAvo Fresh Ltd, proposed to put up an avocado farm near the Amboseli corridor, tongues started wagging.
The authorities's dilemma was whether to allow jumbos or avocados.
KiliAvo Fresh Ltd’s avocado farm is 180 acres surrounded by two conservancies in an area zoned by relevant management plans for livestock and wildlife conservation.
The management plan does not allow crop farming.
Conservationists said the move would affect the free movement of some 2,000 Amboseli elephants as well as other wildlife. Maasai cows were also under threat.
In the Kimana area of the Amboseli ecosystem, licences are being issued for commercial crop farms in an area that approved community and ecosystem land plans zone only for livestock and wildlife tourism.
Conservationists warned that commercial farms irrigated with boreholes would have a destructive impact on this semi-arid and water-stressed ecosystem, especially considering the effects of climate change.
Most landowners in the corridor earn their living from livestock, complemented by wildlife tourism.
Crop farms would also block wildlife migrations and livestock grazing, and also increase human-wildlife conflict.
"Ultimately, commercial farming will end the Maasai way of life and destroy wildlife, including world-famous elephants iconically framed by Mt Kilimanjaro, among them some of Africa’s last few big-ivory ‘tuskers’,"they warned.
Wildlife movement corridors and dispersal areas that surround it are critical for the survival of the park’s wildlife and the entire ecosystem.
Historically, the Maasai land was communal but has now been split into hundreds of privately titled plots.
The majority of these new landowners - 402 of 649 - between Kimana town and Amboseli National Park chose to keep their land unfenced and agreed to use it only for livestock keeping or wildlife tourism
Several authorised (“gazetted”) land use plans dictate activities in the landscape.
There are zones for livestock and conservation, and zones for crop farming.
The counties, the national government through Nema are mandated to take account of land use plans and reject proposed projects, if they are inappropriate for their locations.
However, licenses have been issued for some projects that are in conflict with current land uses. This is despite environmental and social impacts, and being against the significant opposition of local landowners, communities and conservation experts including the Kenya Wildlife Service as some of these areas are outside the Amboseli National Park.
The corridors are important to the Amboseli ecosystem, economically and ecologically as up to 90 per cent of beef in Kenya comes from pastoralists’ herds in Kajiado county, especially Kajiado South subcounty.
The Amboseli ecosystem is one of Kenya’s most visited tourist destinations.
Amboseli National Park received nearly 200,000 visitors in 2019.
Conservation and ecotourism generated at least Sh1.36 billion for the ecosystem in 2018.
Last year, 844 Kimana landowners earned Sh29 million from conservation land leases, which were unaffected by Covid-19 as they are paid whether tourists visit or not.
A 2018 study showed 1,200 people had secured permanent jobs in conservation and tourism, which was considered a significant underestimation of the total.
The ecosystem is one of Kenya’s most important biodiversity hotspots, home to multiple endangered animal species and a population of more than 2,000 elephants.
Animal track counts at a monitoring point in the Kimana Wildlife Corridor identified 22 mammal species and included movements of 11,000 elephants, 24,000 zebras, and almost 30,000 impalas, in the four years to September 2020.
Nema had issued the firm's owners a licence despite earlier rejecting the same development owing to significant local and expert opposition.
The mounting pressure however compelled Nema to issue stop orders in September last year.
Despite the orders, work at the site continued.
The site is now cleared of indigenous vegetation, fenced, ploughed, seedlings planted on 60 acres, shade-net nurseries erected, water tanks installed, and boreholes sunk.
Wildlife has already been affected.
For instance, elephants have broken the fence thrice, a clear indication the development impedes wildlife movement.
On Monday, Nema director-general Mamo Mamo said a verification team was on the ground to ensure the orders were obeyed and works stopped.
KiliAvo in September challenged Nema’s orders that it stops work, at the National Environmental Tribunal, but the case was dismissed on April 26 because KiliAvo failed to supply documentary evidence or witnesses to support their case.
The tribunal move prompted Nema to revoke the license on April 27.
The farm can appeal the revocation of its licence, at Tribunal or can reapply for a new license with a new Environmental Impact Assessment.
Conservationists said if the development is allowed to proceed it will encourage more of the same in the area, driving away tourism investors,which might lead to the collapse of the conservancies and the livestock production system.
There is also the risk of putting extreme pressure on the groundwater resources that feed springs that support tens of thousands of people.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris