{"id":293762,"date":"2024-11-16T21:29:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T21:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/16\/in-kenya-global-crisis-sparked-a-new-way-to-do-conservation\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T21:29:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T21:29:30","slug":"in-kenya-global-crisis-sparked-a-new-way-to-do-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/16\/in-kenya-global-crisis-sparked-a-new-way-to-do-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"In Kenya, global crisis sparked \u2018a new way to do conservation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>Few places on Earth are as evocative \u2014 or as imperiled \u2014 as the vast grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. In a new Conservation News series, \u201cSaving the Savanna<\/a>,\u201d we look at how communities are working to protect these places \u2014 and the wildlife within.<\/em><\/p>\n

MARA NORTH CONSERVANCY, Kenya \u2014\u00a0Under a fading sun, Kenya\u2019s Maasai Mara came alive.<\/p>\n

A land cruiser passed through a wide-open savanna, where a pride of lions stirred from a day-long slumber. Steps away, elephants treaded single-file through tall grass, while giraffes peered from a thicket of acacia trees. But just over a ridge was a
\n sight most safari-goers might not expect \u2014 dozens of herders guiding cattle into an enclosure for the night. The herders were swathed in vibrant red blankets carrying long wooden staffs, their beaded jewelry jingling softly.<\/p>\n

Maasai Mara<\/a> is the northern reach of a massive, connected ecosystem beginning in
\n neighboring Tanzania\u2019s world-famous Serengeti. Unlike most parks, typically managed by local or national governments, these lands are protected under a wildlife conservancy \u2014 a unique type of protected area managed directly by the Indigenous
\n People who own the land.<\/p>\n

Conservancies allow the people that live near national parks or reserves to combine their properties into large, protected areas for wildlife. These landowners can then earn income by leasing that land for safaris, lodges and other tourism activities.
\n Communities in Maasai Mara have created 24 conservancies<\/a>, protecting a total of 180,000 hectares (450,000 acres) \u2014 effectively doubling the total area of habitat for wildlife in the region, beyond the boundaries of nearby Maasai Mara National
\n Reserve.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s significant income for families that have few other economic opportunities \u2014 around US$ 350 a month on average for a family. In Kenya, that’s the equivalent of a graduate salary coming out of university,\u201d said Elijah Toirai, Conservation
\n International\u2019s community engagement lead in Africa.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Jon McCormack<\/span><\/p>\n

Lions tussle in the tall grass of Mara North Conservancy.<\/p>\n

But elsewhere in Africa, the conservancy model has remained far out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cConservancies have the potential to lift pastoral communities out of poverty in many African landscapes. But starting a conservancy requires significant funding \u2014 money they simply don’t have,\u201d said Bjorn Stauch, senior vice president
\n of Conservation International\u2019s nature finance division.<\/p>\n

Upfront costs can include mapping out land boundaries, removing fences that prevent the movement of wildlife, eradicating invasive species that crowd out native grasses, creating firebreaks to prevent runaway wildfires, as well building infrastructure
\n like roads and drainage ditches that are essential for successful safaris. Once established, conservancies need to develop management plans that guide their specified land use for the future.<\/p>\n

Conservation International wanted to find a way for local communities to start conservancies and strengthen existing ones. Over the next three years, the organization aims to invest millions of dollars in new and emerging conservancies across Southern
\n and East Africa. The funds will be provided as loans, which the conservancies will repay through tourism leases. This financing will jumpstart new conservancies and reinforce those already in place. The approach builds on an initial model that has
\n proven highly effective and popular with local communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for creative new ways to pay for conservation efforts that last,\u201d Stauch said. \u201cThis is really a durable financing mechanism that puts money directly in the pockets of those who live closest to nature \u2014
\n giving them a leg up. And it\u2019s been proven to work in the direst circumstances imaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Will McCarry<\/span><\/p>\n

Elijah Toirai explains current conservancy boundaries and potential areas for expansion.<\/p>\n

Creativity from crisis<\/h2>\n

In 2020, the entire conservancy model almost collapsed overnight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one thought that the world could stop in 24 hours,\u201d said Kelvin Alie, senior vice president and acting Africa lead for Conservation International. \u201cBut then came the pandemic, and suddenly Kenya is shutting its doors on March 23,
\n 2020. And in the Mara, this steady and very well-rounded model based on safari tourism came to a screeching halt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourism operators, who generate the income to pay landowners’ leases, found themselves without revenue. Communities faced a difficult choice: replace the lost income by fencing off their lands for grazing, converting it to agriculture, or selling to developers
\n \u2014 each of which would have had drastic consequences for the Maasai Mara\u2019s people and wildlife.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Will Turner<\/span><\/p>\n

A black-backed jackal hunts for prey.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then the nature finance team at Conservation International \u2014 these crazy guys \u2014 came up with a wild idea,\u201d Alie said. \u201cIn just six months they put this entirely new funding model together: loaning money at an affordable
\n rate to the conservancies so that they can continue to pay staff and wildlife rangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation International and the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association launched the African Conservancies Fund \u2014 a rescue package to offset lost revenues for approximately 3,000 people in the area who rely on tourism income. Between
\n December 2020 and December 2022, the fund provided more than US$ 2 million in affordable loans to four conservancies managing 70,000 hectares (170,000 acres).<\/p>\n

The loans enabled families in the Maasai Mara to continue receiving income from their lands to pay for health care, home repairs, school fees and more. And because tourism revenues \u2014 not government funding \u2014 support wildlife protection
\n in conservancies, this replacement funding ensured wildlife patrols continued normally, with rangers working full time.<\/p>\n

Born out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elijah Toirai<\/p>\n

\u201cThe catastrophe of COVID-19 was total for us,\u201d said Benard Leperes, a landowner with Mara North Conservancy and a conservation expert at Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association. \u201cWithout Conservation International and the
\n fund, this landscape would have not been secured; the conservancies would have disintegrated as people were forced to sell their land to convert it to agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was communities themselves that proved the model might be replicable after the pandemic ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conservancies had until 2023 before the first payment was due,\u201d Toirai said. \u201cBut as soon as tourism resumed in mid-2021, the communities started paying back the loans. Today, the loans are being repaid way ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBorn out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new era for conservation<\/h2>\n

The high plateaus overlooking the Maasai Mara are home to the very last giant pangolins in Kenya.<\/p>\n

These mammals, armored with distinctive interlocking scales, are highly endangered because of illegal wildlife trade. In Kenya, threats from poaching, deforestation and electric fences meant to deter elephants from crops have caused the species to
\n nearly disappear. Today, scientists believe there could be as few as 30 giant pangolins<\/a> left in Kenya.<\/p>\n

Conservancies could be crucial to bringing them back. Conservation International has identified opportunities to provide transformative funding for conservancies in this area \u2014 a sprawling grassland northwest of Maasai Mara that is the very
\n last pangolin stronghold in the country. The fund will help communities better protect an existing 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) conservancy and bring an additional 5,000 hectares under protection. It provides a safety net, ensuring a steady income
\n for the communities as the work of expanding the conservancy begins. With a stable income, communities can start work to restore the savanna and remove electric fences that have killed pangolins. And as wildlife move back into the ecosystem, the
\n grasslands will begin to recover.<\/p>\n

In addition to expanding conservancies around Maasai Mara, Conservation International has identified other critical ecosystems where community conservancies can help lift people out poverty, while providing new habitats for wildlife. Conservation
\n International has ambitious plans to restore a critical and highly degraded savanna between Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks in southern Kenya, as well as a swath of savanna outside Kruger National Park in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Emily Nyrop<\/span><\/p>\n

A lone acacia tree in a sea of grass.<\/p>\n

Elephants, fire, Maasai and cattle<\/h2>\n

Many of the new and emerging community conservancies have been carefully chosen as key wildlife corridors that would be threatened by overgrazing livestock.<\/p>\n

When the first Maasai Mara conservancies were established in 2009, cattle grazing was prohibited within their boundaries. When poorly managed, cattle can wear grasses down to their roots, triggering topsoil erosion and the loss of nutrients, microbes
\n and biodiversity vital for soil health. It was also believed that tourists would be put off by the sight of livestock mingling with wildlife.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Emily Nyrop<\/span><\/p>\n

Cattle are closely monitored in the Maasai Mara to prevent overgrazing.<\/p>\n

However, over the years, landowners objected, lamenting the loss of cultural ties to cattle and herding. \u201cThat was when we changed tactics,\u201d said Raphael Kereto, the grazing manager for Mara North Conservancy.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 2018, Mara North and other conservancies in the region started adopting livestock grazing practices to restore the savanna. Landowners agreed to periodically move livestock between different pastures, allowing grazed lands to recover
\n and regrow,\u00a0 mimicking the traditional methods pastoralists have used on these lands for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, there was a worry that maybe herbivores and other wildlife will run away from cattle,\u201d said Kereto. \u201cBut we have seen the exact opposite \u2014 the wildlife all follow where cattle are grazing. This is because we
\n have a lot of grass, and all the animals follow where there is a lot of grass. We even saw a cheetah with a cub that spent all her time rotating with wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s amazing \u2014 when we move cattle, the cheetah comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loans issued by the fund \u2014 now called the African Conservancies Facility \u2014 will enhance rotational grazing systems, which are practiced differently in each conservancy, by incorporating best practices and lessons from the organization\u2019s
\n Herding for Health program in southern Africa.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 Will Turner<\/span><\/p>\n

An elephant herd stares down a pack of hyenas.<\/p>\n

For landowners like Dickson Kaelo, who was among the pioneers to propose the conservancy model in Kenya, the return of cattle to the ecosystem has restored a natural order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to understand how it was that there was so much more wildlife in the conservancies than in Maasai Mara National Reserve,\u201d said Kaelo, who heads the Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association, based in Nairobi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the communities and asked them this question. They told me savannas were created by elephants, fire and Maasai and cattle, and excluding any one of those is not good for the health of the system. So, I believe in the conservancies
\n \u2014 I know that every single month, people go to the bank and they have some money, they haven’t lost their culture because they still are cattle keepers, and the land is much healthier, with more grass, more wildlife, and the trees have
\n not been cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s something really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates<\/a>. Also, please consider supporting our critical work<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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