Conservancies around the Maasai Mara Game Reserve have received a Sh200 million grant to help them improve land usage and recover from Covid-19 shocks.
The funding from the United States Agency for International Development will help property owners to participate in the management of land and resources.
Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association chief executive officer Daniel Sopia said the residents' livelihoods were affected by the tourism slump.
Sopia spoke during a two-day training forum of the Maasai Mara stakeholders at Aitong. More than 200 people drawn from the national and county government, local leaders and hoteliers attended.
“We want to strengthen the conservancies' operations because of lack of tourism so that in the future they can withstand such threats like the Covid-19 pandemic,” Sopia said.
He reiterated that the funds will help build solid conservancy management, with strong revenue streams. Residents who mainly depended on tourism for their survival will have alternative ways of earning an income.
“We want to look at how we will strengthen the management of the conservancies and create a balance between landowners, tourism and livestock management,” he said.
Narok West deputy county commissioner Stephen Orinde praised the conservancies for improving the Mara ecosystem by creating a larger land space for the wild animals to move.
He asked residents to report cases of wildlife conflicts to the authority instead of taking the matter into their hands, saying all cases would be compensated.
The administrator asked residents to give proper documentation to the Kenya Wildlife Service officials to fast-track their compensation.
“Wildlife is the backbone of the economy of the locals from this place and from the corona pandemic, the income really went down. We believe things will go back to normalcy,” he said.
Mary Nadupoi, chair of Maasai Mara Women forum praised the USAID for the grant, saying their beadwork business was disrupted by the global pandemic.
“When corona came we had a big challenge because there was no market for our beads. We are slowly adapting the beekeeping business and table banking to boost our income,” Nadupoi said.
The Narok government announced that it lost Sh2.25 billion revenue at the Maasai Mara Game reserve when the country was closed to contain the Covid-19 spread last year.
Governor Samuel Tunai said the loss was caused by international travel advisories issued by many countries across the world.
(edited by o. owino)
