Locals around Masai Mara surrender land to make home for wildlife, end conflicts

After the recent burning of ivory at Nairobi National Park, attention has now shifted to the country's conservation models.

It is estimated that 75 per cent of Kenya's wildlife is found outside of the main conservation areas. And with more land around such animal sanctuaries being taken for other uses, cases of human-wildlife conflict are bound to increase.

However, a recent tour of areas around Masai Mara revealed the lengths locals are willing to go to accommodate the animals.

Our first stop was the Lion Project near Talek. Sitting on a safari chair outside an oval tent is Nic Elliot, the director of the small outfit that is closely monitoring interaction between the lions and the local community. He says it is an act of delicate balancing between the concerns of conservationists and the daily needs of the local people.

"The number of lions in the Mara is going down at an alarming rate due to habitat loss as more people settle in areas where the big cats roamed freely decades ago," says Elliot.

The large elephant population in the Mara faces a similar predicament. Many of the migration corridors used by the elephants as well as other herbivores are being fenced off either for grazing or farming.

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According to wildlife conservationists, such loss of habitat poses the greatest threat to the survival of key endangered species such as lions, rhinos and elephants.

Planning seriously

"Loss of habitat equals loss of wild animals if we don't take planning seriously," says Robert Ndetei, species conservation manager at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Ndetei says some animals such as elephants require a lot of space to feed and calve. Sadly, he says, increased farming activities around the headwaters of the Mara River – the main lifeline to Masai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem – casts a dark shadow over the future of the jumbos.

"Farming is spreading fast from highland areas, around the Mau, to the lowlands of Masai Mara. But an analysis shows land around the Mara is better utilized for pastoralism rather than farming," says Ndetei.

Among solutions that have borne fruits is the setting up of wildlife conservancies which act as buffer zones between humans and the wildlife. They are also meant to reduce cases of human-wildlife conflicts.

Among those who have set aside land for conservation is Charles Ole Sharkeki. He is one of over 100 people who vacated their land to create the 23,000-acre Oloisukut Conservancy in 2010 to serve as a corridor for elephants visiting the nearby Nyakweri Forest. Nyakweri is known as the "elephants' maternity" as this is where pregnant jumbos gather to give birth.

"Our home was down there. My family had to move out and give way to the elephants and other animals by creating the conservancy," Sharkeki says.

"For the Mara ecosystem to survive, we have no choice but give up some land to animals."

We also met Jonathan Pesi on the edge of the Olare Motorogi Conservancy near Talek shopping centre. He too surrendered 150 acres, part of what created this 35,000-acre conservancy. Like Sharkeki, Pesi knows the future of animals in the larger Mara ecosystem depends on locals taking a greater role in conservation.

Wildlife conservation

Similar scripts where landowners have set aside huge tracts of land for wildlife conservation are replicated all over Masailand. In return, they share  proceeds of tourism with the lodges that are within the conservancy.

Derrick Meegesh, the manager at Oloisukut Conservancy, says it is an act of great sacrifice for locals to give up hundreds or thousands of acres to accommodate wildlife and protect it as a national resource.

"Imagine someone giving up 600 acres. Such a person has agreed to 'own' wildlife similar to his cows. After surrendering, he can no longer live or graze his cattle in the conservation area," he says.

While creation of the conservancies was meant to increase the animals' habitat, it cannot completely eradicate cases of human-wildlife conflict, not when the largely pastoralist community and the many herbivores in the Mara compete for the same resource – grass.

Grass in the reserve has grown taller due to rains. But herbivores prefer the shorter, more nutritious grass. The shorter grass also allows them to spot the predators such as lions, cheetahs and hyenas quickly. The short grass is found in the conservancies where controlled cattle grazing is allowed and this is where it gets tricky.

As herbivores move into the conservancies, they are closely followed by predators. Along the way, the predators get into contact with domestic animals and a conflict is inevitable.

Domestic animals

"Lions have no intention of killing domestic animals. However, when pursuing the herbivores, they come into contact with domestic animals. They cannot bypass a chance for a quick and easy meal in the form of a cow," says Elliot.

To avert unnecessary conflicts with wild animals, some landowners around the Mara opt to fence their land off. Unknowingly though, this is also puts them in the line of fire.

"Land between Loita plains and Masai Mara is a wildlife dispersal corridor. Fencing means predators have no hunting ground thus, they prey on domestic animals," says Elliot.