Baraza

Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: admin

Hi everyone, this is Paula. Last Thursday I attended a breakfast meeting at KWS, the Director, Julius Kipngetich revealed that the post election violence hit hard and deep.  Within the first 3 months of 2008, revenues declined by 90%.  They haven’t fully recovered and currently revenues are still only at 60% of 2007. He warned that if anything happened and revenues slipped lower than 50% it would spell a disaster for KWS.

He also mentioned that the financial environment is further complicated by the current global economic crisis and the ongoing drought which he believes is the worst in Kenyan history. He admitted that there were huge herds of livestock in Samburu, Tsavo (over 100,000) and other protected areas.

However, he noted on a cheerful note that the Rhino population is up by 5 – 7% and we now have 800 individuals in Kenya. 15 were released into an intensive protection zone in Tsavo West recently where they are protected by 40 rangers. Each rhino has a chip in the horn and so can be tracked.

Elephants are also up by more than 4% in Tsavo, as well as Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit. So are Greys zebra.

However he noted with some concern that  Kenya’s lion population has stagnated at 2,100. Threats to lions include lack of space, in Mara, wheat production and livestock. Being the national symbol, and one of the big 5, KWS is committed to protecting lions and will be starting a large carnivore program – recruitment soon.

Wildlife is under unprecedented threat from bushmeat poaching especially in Kajiado, between Naivasha to Nakuru, and along the Mombasa highway.

The outlook is bleak Kenya’s human population is still growth faster than the GDP which means that poverty is worsening and this problem will get worse. The availability of weapons in the north of the country means that every man, as well as some woman and children has a fire arm that is often turned against wildlife.  Poaching is more sophisticated than ever as poachers are simply herdsmen who turn to poaching when they get an order placed by someone in Nairobi via phone. Money is also transferred using cell phones.

To address these new challenges, KWS is about to launch new strategic plan (6th May).

The strategy will examine climate change concerns and opportunities for funding.

It includes the introduction of a new Wildlife Bill and Policy which has been sent to the Minister. He also noted that we should expect tariff adjustment – that means park fees will continue to increase. He mentioned specifically Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks as well as  Mt Kenya where new fees will more than double from $20 per person per day today, to $50 per day, but tickets must also be purchased in a block of 3 days. This he felt competes with Tanzania where it costs $100 per day to climb Mt Kilimanjaro.

Mr Kipngetich was proud to report on the activities that KWS has been upto over the last year.

Last yea he recruited 36 new management trainees. He also created an emergency Management team has been created to deal with emergencies like fire.

KWS armed forces toook over the management of the Mau Forest which is Kenya’s most important water tower. This forest is supposed to be under the management of the Kenya Forest Service, a new unit that he declared is not disciplined. The Mau is patrolled daily from Nakuru by the KWS air wing.  He said that he has proposed a new ‘sustainable’ model for the Mau complex of forests and that these have submitted something to the Prime Minister.

In dealing with wildlife populations, KWS has handled two important translocations – the move of 2,000 ungulates moved from Lake Nakuru Park to Meru National Park.

Several hundred ungulates have been moved from Tsavo to Shimba Hills, as well as from Solio Ranch to Ruma National Park after 15,000acres was hived off Solio for resettlement of poor commnities. A rare antelope, the Lelwell Hartebeest was moved to Ruma.

A major donor, the Rhino Ark is now completing the fencing of the Aberdares forest and concentrating on raising funds for the maintenance of the fence.

KWS has been working with the African Wildlife Foundation on the Kenya Land Conservation Trust – a Land bank that purchases critical conservation lands for conservation. Already bought Eland Downs in Laikipia. Formerly owned by former president Daniel Arap Moi and originally earmarked for resettlement of people now on Solio Ranch in Laikipia.

Although we did not see the new KWS strategic plan, we were told that it is to be launched on May 6^th  to re energise conservation efforts.

In brief he spoke of 6 key strategies in the new strategic plan

1. Force modernization, technology to monitor troop movements
2. Infrastructure to strengthen customer service, staff housing and roads
3. Ecological integrity  more scientists, labs, equipment and collaboration in science
4. Customer service, rangers removed from gates to be manned by civilians, changing old smart card to Safaricard
5. Community mobilization, community enterprises, no more hand outs
6. Resource mobilization – lobbying for more funds from GOK.
   1. Pricing study to be done and  new fee structures 
   2. Create Wildlife Endowent Fund targeting Euros 100m
   3. Donations

Kipmgetich spoke about the creation of a private sector Association to get Kenyans to participate in Kenya lobbying on behalf of KWS especially on negotiation of budgets. I.e wildlife industry lobby group.

 An number of Questions were raised  –

1. What climate change coping mechanisms have you in place for climate change

Ans – we need to get skills and knowledge  to advice policy makers – we need to do research in order to know what adaptations are required.

2. How will independent researchers collaborate?

Ans. Everything must be science based

3. How will you enlist Kenyan supporters when park fees our out of price range for the masses?

Ans. Pricing study will get to the sensitivity  - prices are currently affordable for Kenyans

4. New bill proposes KWS breaks up into 3 unites, what will be the relationship between the three bodies

Ans. KWS currently does regulation, policy, operations, research, security and  training. Split will create the Directorate of Conservation in the ministry to define policy.

A regulatory body will handle licensing

Research will be a semi autonomous body within KWS to help KWS attract funds from treasury.

Training is already a semi autonomous body

4. Tanzania’s wildlife policy is talking about taking tourists from Kenya. What are we doing about this?

Ans Regional cooperation was not described in the strategy but is essential for cooperation and collaboration at international meetings like LATF and CITES. We are working in framework of EA community even though TZ has a different approach and is derailing the EA community. E.g a Kenyan registered car cannot take tourists into a Tz park. Hoping for resistance to decline over time. 

5. Training is currently very limiting – rangers need to understand the flora and fauna. Will you introduce specialization in the program. What is happening in the Mau where there are tense situations between FD and KWS

Ans. Mau is an emergency, KFS guard were not disciplined like KWS. The forest has been sectorized.  KFS is in charge of Masai Mau, Trustland is managed by County council, KWS has a sector as does admin police.

Overall command is with KWS warden. There are occasional flare ups due to differences in perception and discipline. Destruction of the Mau is due to the incompetence of FD/KFS.

Recommendations have gone to PM but are not public – to restore Mau on a more sustainable basis. It will severely restrict KFS who will take 10 – 20 years to develop.

Staff transfers are no longer random, now all computers, all staff go for training each 3 years. 92% of staff are men.   

At the end of the meeting, there was a group photo and I chatted to the Director. Later I caught up with him to talk about the problem of poisoning of lions, especially with Furadan. He said that he wanted to see all the facts and figures before he could quantify the scale of the problem.

After the meeting someone asked me if anyone had seen the document  on the Prime Ministers desk regarding the Mau Forest, or the proposed new Wildlife Act- well I haven’t, and nobody I know has either.  I sensed that while the public sector was being asked to lobby on KWS behalf through our political channels, our MP’s etc, we actually don’t really know what the proposals are. I tried to get a copy of the strategic plan but was told it would unfortunately not be available until the 6th May. Since it was prepared in-house, nobody outside of KWS knows what is really in it even though the document refers to communities, stakeholders and partners.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  More on that later

Tags: furadan, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kipngetich, Lions, Meru, Nairobi Park, Nakuru, Paula Kahumbu, rhinos, shimba

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