Farmers lease land for wildlife corridor at Sh32.8m annually

Wildlife migratory corridors are needed to reduce human-wildlife conflict and to protect wildlife.

One will be created in Kajiado.

In most of Kajiado, increasing human-wildlife conflicts threaten wildlife resources and conservation as well as human settlements.

Nairobi National Park too is threatened by reduction of wildlife migratory corridors so it's difficult for animals to disperse, expand the gene pool and invigorate species.

Big Life Foundation boss Richard Bonham said on Tuesday evening almost all the wildlife dispersal areas and migratory corridors in the southern region of Kajiado have been interfered with by human activities.

It covers the Amboseli ecosystem.

Bonham said the Eselenkei Group Ranch in Kajiado South understands this problem. His foundation signed lease agreements with individual farmers, opening the way to create a new wildlife corridor covering a new wildlife corridor.

The new corridor will extend from the Imbirrikani Group Ranch in the east through Eselenkei to the Osewuan area in the Matapato plains in the west.

In the agreement, 699 farmers in the Eselenkei Group Ranch each contributed 47 acres each to be leased by the Big Life Foundation for Sh1,000 per acre per year.

This comes to Sh32,853,000 a year, which the Big Life Foundation will be paying the farmers for land to enable the migration of wildlife.

The lease agreement between the Big Life and the community was prepared by the Maasai Mara University don Joel Leshao, who was hired as the consultant.

Leshao said he worked closely with the Big Life Foundation CEO, Benson Leyian and the leaders of the group ranch to come up with an agreeable formula.

The consultant said the lease payment increment agreed upon by the two sides is three per cent annually.

The money will be paid to members through their private bank accounts twice a year.

The lease is 21 years and is renewable. Appraisals of the agreement will take place every five years.

Leshao said the Big Life Foundation will not retain the land titles of the members but will instead issue them lease certificates.

Members will not be allowed to put their leased land under any kind of development but their livestock can graze freely on the land.

Payments take effect from January 1, 2023, and the 699 members were advised to form a welfare association to manage the resources. Bonham announced his organisation will look for investors to put up lodges along the corridor.

Leshao said the Big Life Foundation will provide school fees bursaries for the children of the members, employment and other benefits derived from investment to be put up, including a carbon credit fund.

Group ranch chairman Jonah ole Maai thanked the Big Life Foundation for facilitating the subdivision surveys and issuance of land titles to members of the group ranch for Sh16.1 million.

Maai said members of the group ranch will work closely with the  foundation in the preservation of wildlife.

Maasai communities in the Amboseli ecosystem, Maai said, will benefit from integral projects initiated by the Big Life Foundation.

Human-wildlife conflicts in the ecosystem brought about by lack of grazing land and shortage of water in the last 10 years have taken a toll on livestock.

Present during the signing of the lease agreement between the foundation and members of the group ranch was Craig Miller, who is the head of operations in Big Life.

Almost all the wildlife dispersal areas and migratory corridors in the Kenya rangelands have been interfered with by human activities to some extent.

Some are highly threatened or have been completely blocked. 

For example, the wildlife populations in the Athi-Kaputiei area have collapsed. Their movement was curtailed from the Kajiado plains into Nairobi National Park.

This problem has been attributed to high-density settlements, fences and subdivision along the Kitengela-Namanga highway. 

The main threats to habitat connectivity are incompatible land use in wildlife areas, including expansion of crop cultivation,  high-density settlements, fences, mining and quarrying, woodland clearing, wetland drainage, high-density livestock rearing and poaching.

The rapidly increasing human population and high levels of rural poverty are mainly to blame. They are often associated with land tenure and land-use change, pastoralists who become sedentary,  subdivisions, and habitat fragmentation.

Wildlife migratory corridors connect core habitats and are critical for species’ survival and the long-term viability of ecosystems. 

(Edited by V. Graham)