Cody/Jan-
I'm not sure if I explained myself correctly in my previous posting.

In 2007 David Western wrote an open letter to Pres. Kibaki (which still appears on Born Free's website) strongly arguing AGAINST the Kajiado CC being put back in charge of the management of Amboseli. It had been in charge of Amboseli in the 1960's and its inept and lax management led to the degradation of the park's ecosystem - mainly by allowing into the park many thousands of cattle and goats that ate and trampled a large portion of the park's vegetation. The Maasai also speared every last one of its remaining 40 or so black rhino. After the killing of the rhino and the ensuing outrage from the public and conservationists around the world - the park was put back into the hands of KWS and again given Nation Park status.

It's my understanding that Western believes the local people must have a stake in the success of the park through revenue-sharing and jobs but that the KCC should not be running the park. He believes the job of park management should be kept under KWS authority. Another question often raised is - is KCC really representing the welfare of all the neighboring communities and does it equally share its part of the revenue throughout those communities. You're also right to note that outsiders who have never before lived in the area are now pouring in to claim their share of the pie - just like the flower farms in Naivasha were a magnet for not only their actual employees but hundreds of thousands of desperate, unemployed immigrants from other districts and even other countries who then resorted to fish and animal poaching, illegal charcoal production and of course robbery and other criminal activities.

Don't know if Kenya will ever get its act together...obviously the powers that be in the top government positions are too busy grabbing as much as they can and are not looking out for the current and future viability of Kenya's resources and wildlife.

Your last statement says it all - I really wonder when they will get their act together?
Too many hands and palms that need polishing........
They need to start doing open bank policies like we have here in Europe.
If a minister earns X per month; how can he have XXXX plus XXX and a massive house worth XXXX?.....

IMO, the only way this could work and be fair to both the people living near wildlife and the wildlife itself is to grandfather in an act so that only people who lived there (i.e. since 1990, 1995) would be available to receive payments from the council. And this couldn't be done UNTIL corridors have been defined and humans and cattle not allowed in those corridors.

Otherwise, you would have everyone and their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins moving to the areas nearest the parks and reserves trying to benefit from council payoffs.

As bad as it is for the people and wildlife now, it would be far worse if there were a rush for land or land rentals in the area just to benefit from any money that might be divded up. Where there used to be temporary pastoralists in the area, there are now too many permanent enclaves which cut off the natural wildlife "corridors" even further.

Nice plan, implementation is where the difficulty lies. As with most plans.

The key question: "Unless one is employed by parks/reserves/conservancies, how do the majority of the people living near wildlife benefit?" My response--an addditional small surcharge to visitors like me. But the fair distribution of that surcharge must be ensured. There is currently corruption in how park fees are distributed.

As you stated,

My response--an addditional small surcharge to visitors like me. But the fair distribution of that surcharge must be ensured.

However, that wouldn't work unless or until people in Kenya learned what transparency in bookkeeping is. The council would have to have honest and open books so that the people could see what was paid to whom and how much the keeper of the books and/or chief was keeping for himself. Yes, books can be "cooked" but it certainly would help if they were open and honest.

I tried explaining to a Kenyan friend of mine last year how I can go to my Town Hall and look at the books and review expenditures in all departments such as police, fire, school department and he couldn't believe it.

You have to know that over the years the Kajiado council raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet it didn't reach the people nor was it used to improve the infrastructure. Thus most went into some very deep pockets.

KWS has been helping communities by building schools and clinics in some areas hoping it will help the people better appreciate their wildlife. However, they use the schools and clinics, and at the same time go right out and spear, snare and poach anyway.

I think Western's vision of wildlife paying the people that live near it is many years off until better systems can be put in place in the country.