Conservation through ecotourism is Kenya’s third most important industry after agriculture and livestock, contributing more than 10% to gross domestic product (GDP). Government protected areas are largely managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Kenya also has a number of private and/or communal reserves that are among the most important in Africa, with more than 160 across the country protecting more than 6,350,000 hectares (89% in communal reserves), representing 11% of the country’s area and corresponds to more area than the total area managed by KWS.
These reserves, locally called “conservation areas”, are grouped regionally into 11 associations. The one that manages the largest territory is NRT (Northern Rangelands Trust). The one that attracts the most tourism and therefore generates the most benefits is the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservacies Association and the one with the largest number of reserves is the Taita Taveta Wildlife Conservacies Association with 33.
From an economic perspective, the Maasai Mara Greater Ecosystem Reserves alone paid more than $3 million in land lease payments to communities in 2016 alone.
The natural and cultural diversity of the reserves in Kenya is impressive. They protect more than 90% of the populations of some endangered species, such as the Grevy’s zebra or the Hirola antelope. They serve as a complement to the national system of protected areas and are home to much of the 65% of the country’s total wildlife that lives outside of the state’s system of parks and reserves. They also provide direct employment for more than 5,000 people and indirectly benefit more than 800,000 people.
Some of these reserves have pioneered conservation projects that have succeeded in preserving rhinos in Kenya (including the last specimens of the northern white rhino subspecies) and increasing lion densities in the Maasai Mara ecosystem sanctuaries through biological association around the 2.6- fold corridors of some of the country’s most important and numerous elephant populations that have not been exchanged for decades, in turn minimizing conflicts with these animals or controlling elephant or rhino poaching, which other countries such as Tanzania and South Africa have not.
From an economic perspective, the Maasai Mara Greater Ecosystem Reserves alone paid more than $3 million in land lease payments to communities in 2016 alone and invested more than $1 million in community development projects between 2015 and 2016, payments and projects that continue attack.
At the financial level, most of these reserves and associations, especially the NRT, receive funding from international organizations such as the European Union, USAID, the cooperation of Germany, Sweden or Denmark, organizations with the highest labor, environmental and labor law standards. in the world and with a comprehensive system of accountability that many organizations do not have access to because they do not properly comply with the requirements.
The diversity in management and the associated success in private and municipal reserves is also very varied and diverse, both in terms of form and results.
Criticism of this system is guilty of four serious mistakes:
We do not intend to refute the Oakland Institute report in whole or in part, as the NRT has already prepared a vigorous response to it. Nor do we want to deny the complex reality of conservation in Kenya, with many successes, many failures, many good practices and many bad practices.
We intend to highlight the limitations of post-colonial discourse, blessed by a certain misunderstood sense of imperialist guilt, often fueled by resentment and racism (towards the white populace), openly professed by some of the key Kenyan interlocutors cited when we discuss speaking the issues we mention here (without, of course, denying that there is also white-to-black racism).
Inaki Abella Gutierrez He is Director of the Biomas Association and conservation biologist with more than 10 years experience in Africa and has lived in Kenya since 2010.
Paul Manzano He is a researcher at the Basque Center for Climate Change – BC3 and has worked for the University of Helsinki, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
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