Taita Taveta wildlife conservation players have raised concern about grazing of livestock in the Tsavo and Amboseli national parks.
The Taita Taveta Wildlife Conservancy Association chairperson Bongosa Mcharo said they have made great strides in the effort to conserve and protect biodiversity in the region.
However, the area is faced with challenges of illegal herders, especially from North Eastern counties, who invade with their livestock and have exerted immense pressure on the available pasture and vegetation leading to overgrazing and degradation within the landscape.
Mcharo said the situation has further become a threat to the security of wildlife due to poaching and illegal wildlife killing, especially for bush meat.
“We in TTWCA have deliberately made efforts to increase spaces for the wildlife in our conservancies,” he said.
“We now have many wildlife moving in conservancies, but the unfortunate thing is that our parks, which are supposed to be protected areas specifically for wildlife, have also become spaces for livestock thus reducing space for wildlife where they are supposed to live.”
Mcharo said they have tried to address the issue several times, but there is still a lot of livestock in the parks.
“We have talked about it, but it seems these people are so powerful that the government cannot remove them and I wonder why,” he said.
He said communities surrounding the park are usually arrested when they try to access it, taken to court and fined, yet there are people from outside the county who are allowed in.
TTWCA chairperson said there is a need to enhance biodiversity conservation and strengthen law enforcement capacity for effective detection and prevention of illegal activities, such as poaching, encroachment and grazing and as well as mitigating and timely provision of a response to wildlife human-wildlife conflict incidences.
“We would like to be encouraged to keep wildlife within our conservancies by the people who are concerned with protecting areas to protect wildlife,” he said.
“If we are going to encourage conservation, let us keep the livestock where they are supposed to be and wildlife in conservancies and where it is necessary, let there be regulations for putting them within the parks.”
Climate change has been pointed out to be the leading factor of human–wildlife conflict and livestock finding their way into the parks.
Taita Taveta county is among the regions which were affected by the prolonged drought as a result of climate change
Mcharo said Taita Taveta has faced the worst drought in many years as ranches have lost over 3,000 head of cattle.
“This has been a wakeup call for us on the need to adopt measures for climate change to avoid incurring such huge loses in the future with the advent of sustainable management of Amboseli and Tsavo landscape project,” he said.
“The five-year project funded by USAID and implemented by IFAW in partnership with Tsavo Trust collaborating with TTWAC, we are optimistic that these landscape challenges will be addressed.”
The Amboseli Ecosystem Trust Board chairperson Daniel Leturesh said climate change has been real.
Initially, he said, they used to live in denial whenever they were told about it, therefore it is their responsibility as key players to deal with it and educate people about it.
“We have had several challenges as we did the conservancy work to increase the number of wildlife. Climate change has been the main challenge and we do not remember the last time we experienced such,” he said.
“It has reduced the number of wildlife where we have lost almost over 70 per cent of the wildlife and 80 per cent of livestock.”
The chairperson said they have set aside 500,000 acres of land to preserve wildlife.
However, due to climate change, they need to talk as stakeholders and analyse the problem and ensure the enforcement of laws.
“We know there is existing law, but even when there is a law, people need to talk because we might end up losing all our wildlife and domestic animals,” he said.
Kenya Wildlife Service acting director general Erastus Kanga said Tsavo East is about 13,700 square kilometres while Tsavo West is about 9,000 square kilometres.
The two national parks accumulate about 22,747 square km supported by the Chulu which is about 700 square kilometres and when the government-protected areas are combined, they are about 23,427 square km, the land that cannot exist without the community conservancies.
He said the community land that is surrounding the three parks is actually the dispersal area and the corridor which are live lines of the parks and which enhance the ecological integrity of the parks.
“We value the communities for being the first line of defence for our wildlife, not only that but also being the custodian of our wildlife which is our national heritage.”
“All the emerging issues are happening due to climate change therefore let us dialogue and get a solution so that both livestock and wildlife can thrive for us to maintain the ecological integrity of our landscapes,” he said.
He said there is no cow that will be allowed in the Tsavo ecosystem because it is livestock that is causing destruction, transmitting diseases and bringing in people who they suspect are going to be poachers.
In Tsavo west and Amboseli national parks, he said they have a clear plan with the communities because they learn from them therefore they will have a dialogue with them and thereafter the government will take action.
“I want to make a commitment from KWS that we will work with the local communities to enhance our wildlife conservation, promote community livelihoods and create jobs,” he said.
Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and National Heritage principal secretary Silvia Museiya said community conservation is a new model that needs to be embraced.
“We now realise that we cannot have parks and marine reserves as the only space for conservation and this is because of the influx of population where many people are coming to conservancies,” she said.
The PS said they cannot tell people like the Masaai’s to drive out their livestock and they are not given an alternative. Therefore if the alternative in terms of management and land use policies that are needed to make a difference in wildlife, then it must be of benefit to the community.
“We need to open up communication around conservation and as part of building the capacities of these communities, we need a lot of legal awareness so that we can know how to get into that space,” she said.
Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime called upon the KWS to begin conservation with his administration that will establish a working framework. This will help establish a revenue sharing formulae and sharing gained benefits received as revenue generated from the larger Tsavo East and West revenue parks.
“Taita Taveta has the lowest revenue generation in the country because a huge part of its land has the national park where they don’t get income. Our national park is big therefore if we invest in carbon credit, we will generate a lot of money for both the county and the national government,” he said.
There is a need of fencing the park so that the compensation fee can go down and enhance the community.
“Kenya wildlife service should allow livestock to enter the nearest parks because of the drought but under properly guided laws to avoid the conflicts,” he said.
-Edited by SKanyara