•Fortunately, the ranches have developed land use plans that, if implemented, will ensure that the subdivided ranches will still support a mix of pastoralism and wildlife conservation.
•The Conservancy has set aside four conservancies and one corridor to facilitate wildlife dispersal to the rest of the ecosystem.
Habitat loss and land degradation as a result of the ongoing sub-division of group ranches remain the biggest threat to wildlife in the Amboseli.
This is according to the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan and Amboseli National Park Management Plan launched by Tourism CS Najib Balala.
The two documents which seek to address the underlying issues threatening the survival of iconic species in the ecosystem showed that the Maasai pastoralist community that live in the park’s dispersal areas were increasingly settling.
The two plans also warn that if proactive measures are not taken to operationalize the conservancies for community livelihood improvement, the possibility of the park becoming an ecological island is real.
All the group ranches in Amboseli are subdividing
Fortunately, the ranches have developed land use plans that, if implemented, will ensure that the subdivided ranches will still support a mix of pastoralism and wildlife conservation.
The Conservancy has set aside four conservancies and one corridor to facilitate wildlife dispersal to the rest of the ecosystem.
"The community have agreed on wildlife corridors and areas for other land uses. When there is a change in the next 10 years, they will not be getting approval because we have all agreed this is the way we are going‚” Balala said.
The CS said they have no objection to proper land use, however, corridors cannot be blocked and migratory routes for wildlife cannot be interfered with.
He said the community is fully supportive of those corridors and they want them to be kept.
“Amboseli survival depend on Chyulu Hills National Park, Tsavo West National Park. There is a whole circuit including crossing to Tanzania‚” he said.
The plan also calls for immediate actions to be taken to implement the Amboseli ecosystem land-use zoning scheme and other measures that have been agreed upon by group ranches to safeguard wildlife dispersal areas.
Amboseli National Park is today a remnant of the 27,700 km2 Southern Game Reserve established in 1906.
This reserve was reduced to 3260 km2 in 1948 and was named Amboseli National Reserve and placed under the administration of the National Park Trustees.
Ecologically, the national park is located in the Amboseli ecosystem, defined as the area encompassing the dry and wet season wildlife dispersal areas of Amboseli National Park.
The ecosystem is thus characterised by the migratory limits of the major wildlife species.
Amboseli National Park features a diversity of ecological processes, with rich and varied biodiversity interactions.
It has an elephant population of about 1800 according to latest data with the elephants closely associated with habitat changes in the Amboseli National Park.
They have been the subject of the longest-running elephant study in the world and as a result of the long and close interaction with researchers; they are approachable, thereby giving visitors excellent opportunities for watching them at close range.
The main large carnivore species in the park are lion, cheetah, and hyena, all of which can be seen easily in the park.
The Amboseli National Park is also one of the 62 Important Bird Areas in Kenya and thus it is recognized as globally significant for bird conservation.
The ecosystem has a rich birdlife, with over 500 species recorded.
Amboseli National Park’s ecosystem has strong Community wildlife conservation initiatives that have played a key role in maintaining wildlife access to dispersal areas, promoting human-wildlife co-existence, and wildlife protection.
The park has been zoned to assist management in applying specific management policies and objectives to specific areas of the Park.
Amboseli’s zoning is based on the character and distribution of the Park’s resources and the level of use to which they are put.
The zoning plan is also aligned with the Amboseli Ecosystem visitor use and land-use zoning schemes.
The three identified zones for Amboseli National Plan are High Use Zone, Low Use Zone and Habitat Restoration Zone.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris