Baraza

Mara crisis bites harder as tourists stay home

Category: Emergency appeals, Mara Triangle | Date: Mar 07 2008 | By: admin

Although the political crisis in Kenya may be over or at least reduced, tourist and tourism revenues have not and will not snap back. The cancellation of flight routes, closure of hotels and tour companies, and booking cancellations all took place over a few weeks. Restoring confidence in Kenya as a tourism destination however, will take years and massive investments in marketing Kenya.

While in the Mara I had long discussions with the CEO of the Mara Conservancy, Brian Heath.

His dream was and is to make the Mara economically sustainable from tourism revenues. I thought you’d like to read some of the extracts of his February report to get a good understanding of the scale of the problem. Notice how long the security section of the report is!

Tourism

February has been another disastrous month for tourist visitations. There was a short period in the middle of the month when people began to return and it looked as if the situation might be salvaged to some extent. However, the stand-off between the two main political parties and renewed threats of mass action throughout most of February meant that tourists are still very reluctant to visit. We may be lucky and maintain the expected 30% of our original estimates for the coming months but can not foresee any significant improvement in tourist visitations before July.

Security

Ten poachers were arrested during February, 9 of them were Tanzanians and the tenth a Luo poacher who had been arrested before. This brings the total to 1,013 poachers arrested since June 2001.

The Ngiro-are team arrested one poacher on the evening of the 9^th. He was one of three people entering the Lemai Wedge to hunt along the escarpment near Kinyangaga.

Some meat was found stashed in a tree near Ol Kurruk by a routine patrol between the community scouts and our rangers on the 15^th. The following day we mounted a patrol in the Sankuria forest and arrested one Luo poacher, he had been in the forest for six days and had killed a zebra and a waterbuck. Three wire snares were recovered.

The Ngiro-are team arrested two wa Kuria poachers on the 19^th as they were traversing the Lemai Wedge, on their way to hunt hippo along the Mara River. They informed us that they had met with another group of poachers, also on their way to hunt hippo on the Narok side of the river. The following day we mounted a joint patrol along the Narok side of the river but found no poacher activity.

The Ngiro-are team arrested one poacher as he and his companion came down the escarpment to hunt in the Lemai Wedge late in the evening of the 22^nd. They recovered four wire snares.

The Ngiro-are team were asked to assist the rangers from Kinyangaga on the 24^th. The rangers had confiscated some wa Kuria cattle for illegal grazing in the Lemai Wedge and were taking them to Kinyangaga when they were accosted by an irate mob of wa Kuria, trying to recover their cattle. The situation became tense, with arrows and bullets fired at the rangers. Our rangers assisted in getting the cattle into the Kinyangaga compound and then withdrew. The wa Kuria continued firing into the compound. The Tanzanian rangers managed to apprehend one person with a firearm, only to discover that he was a policeman from the local village.

The Ngiro-are rangers found a temporary poacher’s camp at 9.00 am on the 25^th in a water-course between Ol Dono Nasipa and Konyoike – about half a kilometre into Tanzania. The five poachers were the group we had been looking for on the 19^th on the Narok side of the river. They had camped upstream from the search area, had killed one hippo and were on their way home after drying the meat. All five were arrested, four by the Ngiro-are team and the fifth after they were joined by the Serena rangers. Three wire snares and three heavy pears were recovered.

Revenue and Accounts

In January we had to re-calculate our budget, based on possibly receiving only 30% of our anticipated revenue. Although we implemented most of our cost-cutting measures in January our January Profit and Loss account indicated that we have a shortfall of Ksh 1.576 million (US$ 22,500 at the current rate of exchange.

We have been very fortunate in receiving support to meet our projected shortfall and would like to thank the following for their support. I would particularly like to single out Asuka for her support; she has raised US$ 29,000 in three weeks through her articles and blog for the Mara Conservancy. This shows the power of the Internet in raising funds if the message is right.

CMC Motors - 2,500,000 (approx US $ 40,000) for vehicle service and spares for one year

Asuka - 2,030,000 (approx US $ 23,000) Donations through her blog

Anne Kent-Taylor Fund 1,050,000 (approx US $ 12,000) donation for community scouts and security allowances

WildlifeDirect 700,000 (US $ 10,000) Donations through the blog

Care for the Wild 70,000(US $ 1,000) Donation for anti-harassment

Mc Phelps and family 70,000 (US $ 1,000) for Cheetah 1 (patrol team)

Total Raised to date 6,420,000

The exchange rate is about 1$=Ksh70Brian also noted that the Masai who had been laid off by hotels had returned to their villages where they were now herding livestock. These include diploma holders who just can’t make a living anymore in tourism.

We interviewed Dixon qualified in hospitality, who had returned to the village to herd cattle, a job normally reserved for boys. He was not alone, there were hundreds of cases like his. He was very bitter not about the hotel that fired him, but with the Kenyan leaders who are ignoring the suffering of so many as a result of the violence that followed the election dispute.

If the Maasai cannot get jobs in the tourism and wildlife sector, they will do what they need to do to survive- increase their herds in the Greater Mara ecosystem. This is perhaps the greatest threat to wildlife which migrates through the entire ecosystem which includes the Serengetti in Tanzania. Cattle, sheep and goats all compete for the same grazing as the wildlife…if we lose the Greater Mara, it will only be a short time before we lose the Mara as a consequence. The harmony between the Maasai and wildlife is on the verge of shattering as a result of this crisis. You can learn more about the Maasai wildlife interface in Asukas blog (she deals with livestock diseases that could affect wildlife) and at this website called reto-o- reto which means ‘I help you, you help me’. It’s a research project all about finding better land use management for pastoralists.

For the Mara Triangle the lack of funds means that planned developments have been put on hold. Only essential road works are being done (anyone who has been to the Mara knows what why roads maintenance is so critical).

These workers were on a break - the machine had broken down! Most of the road working machines are lying idle now.

Roads can wait but patrols cannot.

Despite all the cost cutting, we are now facing a situation where patrols are threatened. If patrols are halted, poaching will escalate and could go out of control, this we must prevent.