As climate events such as drought grow more extreme in Kenya, conservancies will become increasingly important for the survival of wildlife. Conservancies make up 13% of Kenya’s land area.
Paula Kahumbu, a renowned conservationist and the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year for 2021 winner, has emphasised the importance of education surrounding wildlife and marine conservation and how community-led conservation is making a difference in Kenya.
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Kahumbu believes that education is key to conservation efforts and will inspire people to take action.
“This is not so much about advocacy, it’s really about educating people about our animals, our traditional knowledge, our forests and what’s happening to our rivers.”
She encouraged young people to get involved in wildlife and marine conservation. The result, Kahumbu hopes, will be that young people will be the voice for the animals that can’t speak for themselves, the voice for nature, the voice for rivers, and the voice for mountains.
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She highlighted that the importance of community-led conservation efforts within marine life has led to a massive comeback in the fish, a huge recovery in the seagrass and in the coral reefs, bringing back that colour.
Dickson Kaelo, CEO of Kenya Wildlife Conservancies explains that when perennial, long-term, severe droughts happen, people have limited choices and they end up selling the land to survive, adding that it has a big impact on tourism and wildlife.
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“If wildlife is not able to move over large distances, they affect the environment in a way that negatively impacts them. If the territories of lions are much smaller and have little prey, the lions fight and kill each other as a result. The conservancy actually expands the area available for wildlife,” Kaelo said.
Kaelo added that the success of the conservancies’ movement not only helps wildlife but also the local community, according to Kaelo.
“When the community begins to see wildlife as their own asset and that actually the benefits that accrue are actually also flowing into them, we’ve seen stewardship coming back to what it was a few decades back,” he added.
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