Case Study: Kenya*

Background: Kenya is a 582,646 sq km country located in East Africa. The equator runs through this country and creates a mostly semi-arid climate. However, there are some sections, such as the Rift Valley, which have a slightly greater rainfall and are greener. Also, Kenya borders the Indian Ocean which creates a shoreline habitat. Currently, Kenya has 31 national parks and preserves (www.kws.org) occupying 34,700 sq km or 6% of their total land (http://www.animalinfo.org/country/kenya.htm). Wildlife tourism is a leading source of cash flow into this developing country. It is estimated during the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara/Serengeti that each wildebeest brings in about $125 and each lion sighting is worth 0.5 million dollars (Prinz 316)

Why Kenya should be preserved: Kenya is home to 51 threatened species including the African elephant (Loxodonta africana), Aders; Duiker (Cephalophus adersi), Grevy's Zebra (Equus grevyi), cheetah (Acinoyx jubatus), black rhinoceros (Dirceros bicornis), and lion (Panthera leo) (http://www.animalinfo.org/country/kenya.htm). The Maasai Mara National Reserve in southern Kenya as part of the Maasai Mara/Seringetti ecosystem has the "greatest assemblages of wildlife in the world" (Seno 2001). Other parks in Kenya offer similarly high species richness. The rare species, the abundant numbers, and the importance to Kenya's economy are just some of the reasons it is important to protect Kenya's ecosystems. A further reason is the amount of space some of these precious species need to survive. The African elephant is usually considered their keystone species as it requires a large amount of space to be sustained and is helping to determine park boundaries. Other important species are the large cats, lions, leopards and cheetahs who also need considerable area to sustain themselves. As this country is a developing one, it is important to preserve the habitats of these animals before they are destroyed.

What is the is ecotourism draw to Kenya: What draws many tourists to Kenya is the big game animals. To attract tourists to Kenya the tourism industry has established "the Big Five": lion, leopard (Panthera pardus), elephant, rhino, and buffalo (Syncerus caffer). The majority of tourists to the parks are from western European countries, as well as some from the United States, Canada, and Japan.

How Kenya is being preserved: To protect the wildlife, and therefore a source of revenue for Kenya, the government has set up some policies. Currently Kenya's national parks are run by the Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS); however, it was not always run by KWS. Kenya was a colony of the British Empire during the days when many of the protected areas were established. They were originally protected for the purpose of hunting big game animals. Kenya established its first official national park in 1948, Tsavo National Park. The park was modeled after the United States' Yellowstone National Park. Several other parks in Kenya followed, and they also were developed based on the Yellowstone model. This model prevented hunting and collection of natural resources from inside park boundaries. However, the Yellowstone model is not functional in the Kenya system. This is due to the nature of the land and the people living in Kenya. For instance, the area around Tsavo National Park is semi arid and therefore lacks water. But, inside the national park, Tsavo is rich in wildlife because of its permanent water supply. This creates a problem with the local tribe, the Maasai. This tribe is primarily pastoralists and need to use the water for their livestock and themselves. If they are prevented from using this water supply, they will die. This conflict also exists in several other parks in Kenya, such as the Maasai Mara and Amboseli. This problem is one example of why reserves need to be set up to work specifically to the area involved. As it became apparent that using the Yellowstone model is destructive to the livelihood of the Maasai, policies began to change to allow the collection of water within the park and the grazing of livestock sometimes in the dry season in a number of these parks (Lamprey 2004). Another policy in Kenya based around nature tourism is reimbursement for damage done by wildlife. In order to have a monetary value to the animals to help motivate locals not to kill wildlife the government offers compensation to those who have been injured or killed by wildlife. This program, however, does not work as planned. Because of underfunding and under staffing, the KWS has not paid most claims made by the locals. The KWS does not have enough staff to investigate claims made by victims and therefore does not distribute money to the locals. The Kenya Wildlife Service is improving. It allows the Maasai and other local tribes to become a larger part of decision making process and allocates them a portion of the profits made by the parks. These are large steps taken by KWS. However, the money brought in by tourism is not evenly distributed among all Maasai and usually only tribal leaders are benefiting from this source of income. Another change which may be coming is the establishment of wildlife corridors between the major national parks. As more biological research is done, people are pushing for these corridors as they are finding that the area inside the national parks are not sufficient to support large game species. Kenya still has a long way to go to develop sustainable eco tourism. As the government of Kenya creates more laws regulating water use and training local tribes men to become part of the park service we can see efforts towards more sustainable ecotourism. Now Kenya needs more funding and support to enforce these laws and fund more research to improve them.

*Much of this information is from notes taken from classes taken at the Centre for Wildlife Management Kimana, Kenya between September and December 2003.