Back on July 9th I posted a news article "Kenya's National Parks Not Free From Wildlife Declines". In it David Western, a former KWS head, says:

Western said that to protect Kenyan wildlife from further declines, the Kenyan government needs to set policies to share the profits of ecotourism with local communities so that they can reap the economic benefits of protecting the wildlife and ecosystems within and surrounding the national parks.

"We now have streams of visitors into the parks and at the moment the revenues are going to the tour operators, hoteliers and the government and nothing to the customary users of that land. We need to create 'parks beyond parks' in which we encourage communities to become closely aligned with their own wildlife sanctuaries, their own lodges, their own scouts and their own conservation efforts."

Western added that he and his colleagues found in a separate study, soon to be published, that "where we have community based conservation linked to a national park, the losses of wildlife are much, much less."

He said those lessons apply not only to national parks in Kenya, but to those in other countries, including the United States.

"We're not likely to increase the number of national parks or increase parkland," he added. "But we can create parks beyond parks in local communities that double as grazing land for livestock during droughts and become drought refuges for wildlife. This obviates the need to create new parkland."

"The combination of local involvement with national parks makes a very good fit," he said.

Were this to happen, how would it stop cruelty/barbarism via poaching, spearing, poisoning and bushmeat trade effecting wildlife that we now see in Africa? Unless one is employed by parks/reserves/conservancies, how do the majority of the people living near wildlife benefit?

It seems intuitive to want the local communities around wildlife parks and reserves to reap the benefits when they make an effort to preserve and protect wildlife in their immediate communities. But it is complicated and not a straightforward philosophy which David Western has been touting for many years, since he was KWS Director, briefly, in the late-90's.

For instance, when I first visited Amboseli in 1997, I stayed at Tortillis Camp because it was on community land and they would get a share of the profits from the lodge's earnings from its tourist trade. We would go on walks with a local Maasai who would show us plants they used in medicine for various illnesses and identify spoor (animal signs) in the sand of many animals and describe the animals' behavior. So far, so good. But then when I returned to Tortillis Camp several years later - expecting to enjoy the constant parade of elephants, giraffe, zebra and antelopes going past Tent #9, the furthest tent from the other buildings - I was sadly disappointed to find the tent now constantly surrounded by cattle and goats instead of wildlife.

Yes, the community had prospered enormously from the tourist lodge and immediately started buying as many cattle as they could now afford with their profits....and thereby essentially "killing the goose that laid the golden egg". When told about the distress to the the tourists - that "they don't travel for thousands of miles and pay thousands of dollars to see goats and cattle"...the chief simply smiled, shrugged and said "we don't care...we have the money in our hands now...who knows what tomorrow will bring". The afternoon walk with the Maasai was now a walk through a desolate area - vacuumed of all plant life by the insatiable appetites of the goats and cattle....and of course there were no longer any of the magnificent animals we had come to know - no longer elephant, zebra, giraffes, bat-eared foxes - but a few donkeys and goats.

Other - actually community-run lodges like Il Ngewi created and supported by Lewa - have had better success, I believe. I certainly don't think conservation in Kenya has a chance of surviving without the support of the people in the surrounding communities - but of course they must be educated - as Ian Craig at Lewa strives to do about conservation practices and how to provide a healthy ecosystem for wildlife to thrive.

Would love to hear others thoughts on this important matter!

Thanks Kat for your very thoughtful reply.

I can't help but also wonder whether the encouragement that "the people should be paid for living with wildlife" has not encouraged more and more people who did not live in wildlife areas to now move there. As you know, the area near the Serena only had a few families - now too many.

Then you also have to depend on the honesty of the person receiving the money and whether or not they will share it with their people.

I too would love to hear more opinions on this important topic.

This is a topic I was heavily involved in and met up with David Western in person and his team on a number of occasions. This was a reason as well why I started bushdrums.com
It is not as simple as everyone makes out to be.
Amboseli is well known as lots of tourists and wildlife eco programs as well as NGO's have set up camp there. The problem is a global one.

However - lets 1st remember who the land belongs to, who lives there and what people think.

You and I enjoy going on safari and seeing animals - NOT cattle and goats....
We pay crazy money - from US Dollars 100.00 per night to up to US Dollars 1000.00 per night.
Park fee - well we all know how high that has gone.....
The locals; what do they get from people who has transformed their pastoral grazing land into flower industries, camps, hotels and lodges?
We do not want them to go into Ambo. for water for their cattle - they also come to the park for water as some of their water holes have been consumed by the large multi national flower companies that have taken the main water drainage of Mt. Kili.
No body is kicking their butt for having done this and for placing pipe lines through migration paths....

Please do not get me wrong as I also believe that only harm is done for tourists to see thousands of cattle drinking 200 yards from Serena Lodge in Ambo. Or in the Mara. I lived there – I know what it is like.

I personally met up with every private sector in the whole area, the managers, owners of the big camps, locals, game wardens, all large NGO’s and I must say the best response was from David Western and his team however they also have the door shut on them on a number of occasions as some of the big private boys who own ranches / lodges see David Westerns theories as a problem as they do NOT want to share, help or do much about the issue of grazing, water and cattle issues, farming around the areas, fencing and worst of all – to re open wildlife migration paths. They are just interested in making money and as much as they can.

My father was quite well known in these areas which has allowed me to have meetings with these people – however when they (privately owned camp owners) realised what the issue was for and to try and get onto one table and address the issues of cattle in parks, etc etc – they actually asked me to back off the work I was doing and one offered me to work for them rather than against them.

Unfortunately this issue is a very complex one and there is no body really that gets a fist on the table to make a very tough effort to go in for a hard battle as the players all need to get together – and each thinks of themselves and their own pockets.
Locals and farmers, group ranches, all NGO’s in the areas, private sector, local council, KWS and the government…. These together on one table to make decisions… not so easy.

This topic is tough and can get emotions high as the land is really beautiful and unfortunately the changes in the years have been negative – a very tough one and thank you for bringing it up.

Yes, I totally agree with Western that local communities should be encouraged to be involved in wildlife conservation and should benefit from the exorbitant park/reserve and lodge fees from tourism.

However, I believe all of the wildlife parks and reserves should be run by a newly organized and robust KWS who will have well-qualified wildlife conservationists at all levels of management, not by the whims of the leaders of the County Councils.

David Western is a strong proponent of sharing revenue and wildlife conservation jobs for the local communities but adamantly opposed the downgrading of Amboseli from national park status to being handed to the Kajiado County Council for management.

There are reasons why he backed such plans to have the Kajiado CC to be more involved.
If we simply take a look at how many foreign tourists that go into the park via plane and land from the coast hotels and Nairobi etc; Ambo. brings in one of the highest revenues of any African National Park especially if worked out per square km per capita. All this goes into KWS coffers; how much directly into the CC of Kajiado?

It is very tough to discuss such a hard and deep project and will take years to figure........ and get the correct issues sorted! But interesting!