• The walk is called 'Ivory Belongs to Elephants' and aims to educate Kenyans on the need to protect them.
• National wildlife census set to be released soon.
Elephants Neighbours Centre CEO Jim Justice Nyamu is to trek 300 kilometres to sensitise Kenyans to the need to protect elephants.
On Wednesday, Nyamu was joined by Dr Winnie Kiiru from the Elephant Protection Initiative and other nature lovers for the launch of the walk that will end at Amboseli.
"Today I will begin a walk of 300km to Amboseli, traversing Kajiado and Ilbisil," Nyama said.
The walk is called 'Ivory Belongs to Elephants'.
Nyamu, who started the initiative in 2013, said there was a need to educate Kenyans on the need to protect jumbos.
Kenya has about 35,000 jumbos.
A national Wildlife Census covering both land and aquatic wildlife was launched on May 7. It will provide detailed statistics.
Tourism CS Najib Balala presided over the launch at Shimba Hills National Reserve in Kwale county.
The CS said the census results will be released in 10 days.
Nyamu said so many elephants have been lost in human-wildlife conflicts.
The government is struggling to clear Sh14 billion compensation to the victims.
Nyamu said he has walked 17,400km. He said elephants are key to Kenya's economy, contributing four per cent to the GDP.
"The existence of elephants is why human beings live. That's where we get clean water and grazing," Nyamu said.
He said wildlife belongs neither to the Kenya Wildlife Service or the government.
"This is Kenya’s heritage that must be protected for posterity and for all of us because the water we drink comes from the protected areas," he said.
Nyamu said he will be joining other stakeholders in observing World Elephant Day on August 12 in Amboseli.
"By the time I reach there, we will have achieved great awareness along the route," he said.
Nyamu said the mortality rate of elephants is very high at four per cent and the growth rate is two per cent per annum.
"We also want to let people know that the moment we lose animals, we are also losing high potential areas for agriculture, livestock and issues to do with tourism and wildlife," he said.
Dr Kiiru said the ivory trade has been the biggest challenge to elephant conservation in the last two decades.
"However, we are seeing emerging issues around human-elephant conflict starting to become more important," she said.
“In the last two years, we have had more elephants killed in problem animal control and conflict-related issues than poaching.”
Kiiru said the message today should be harmonious co-existence by humans and elephants, the most important agenda for conservation not just in Kenya but across Africa.
The wildlife census will show where the elephants are and what needs to be done to ensure they have adequate space for migration.
The aim is for them to live like elephants and live in harmony with the people they share spaces with.
"Poaching trends in the last two years have been positive. We have fewer than 10 elephants poached. It is a real success because we have come from decades where the world was reporting 10,000 elephants poached per year," Kiiru said
But new markets always emerge and there's no reason for complacency.
Kiiru said to secure space for wildlife, it's necessary to focus on sustainable livelihoods for communities living and sharing space with wildlife.
“They support wildlife conservation but they have aspirations and they need to achieve them as they share space with wildlife," she said.
There are other places where sharing those spaces is not possible and we need to create barriers, Kiiru said.
Kiiru said harmonious co-existence with wildlife is possible in other places and the investment should be in sustainable livelihoods for communities.
(Edited by V. Graham)