Kenya Wildlife - By: Mayank

Kenya exquisitly stands out in Africa because of its natural and untampered with natural forests. The mountanious country with a variety of tree species, animal species and the cultural activites makes Kenya famous and a destiny for local and international tourists.

The ability of the masai community to co-exist with the wildlife explains why the country manages to preserve its nature. However, Kenya is faced with other challanges given that there conflict of interest, that is between the human settlement and animals.

Wildlife are constantly moving between the reserve and surrounding ranchlands and they are increasingly competing for habitat with livestock and with large-scale crop cultivation around the human settlements.

Masai's move to a more sedentary lifestyle had been driven in part by decades of policy neglect that forced many to abandon the more environmentally friendly practice of grazing livestock over wide expanses of grasslands.

Poaching has been all but eradicated in the parks, thanks to the vigilance of wildlife officers, Security Department and Air-wing Unit.

Community involvement is the key to all operations. Statistics indicate that 75% of Kenya's wildlife lives outside parks and reserves, resulting in two major difficulties: First, Kenya's parks are not big enough to sustain all of the country's wildlife, so we must resolve conflict in the traditional migration and dispersal areas outside parks. Second, the human-wildlife conflict in Kenya is growing, with fifty human deaths attributed to wildlife in 1993, plus loss of livestock, crops and livelihood. Persuading communities to accept and protect wildlife when it derives them of their only income and endangers their lives has been a fundamental problem.

The communities around the parks have come into their own last year as joint custodians of wildlife, and their trust, support and active participation has made operations significantly easier. The co-objective is to educate and co-operate with landowners around parks and reserves to get them literally "buy in" to conservation by demonstrating the economic benefits of wildlife on their lands.

In intensively farmed areas, KWS has taken action to safeguard communities and their harvests with better patrolling, fencing and monitoring of wildlife movements and trends. To address the economic issue, tourism development has been implemented by encouraging and implementing ecotourism activities inside and outside the parks and reserves in conjunction with local landowners.

The introduction of the new parks ticketing system successfully has developed Commercial Department, which has shown immediate results through better and more efficient revenue collection.

This has freed up park teams to improve visitor facilities and communications, patrol and enforce wildlife regulations, and work more closely with the Community Wildlife Service to activate hundreds of vital, community-based social, economic and tourism projects throughout Kenya.

To assist donors and Kenyan management, a donor liaison office has been set up to improve communications and co-ordination. As a result, information on specific projects has become easier to access and evaluate, ensuring greater efficiency in programme implementation.

Kenya Wildlife Service's priorities have shifted slightly each year, reflecting the success and commitment of the KWS team in tackling major issues such as security, poaching, the human-wildlife conflict, donor collaboration and community involvement.

Article Written by Mayank Gupta. Offers over 1000 destination guides including best ski resorts, adventure tourism. Articles to help you plan your trip, cheapest hotel rates in world on his website -
World Travel Guide