Human Wildlife Conflict in Mara Ecosystem

Elizabeth Wakoli


Other projects

12 Jul 2018

Human Wildlife Conflict in Conservancies in Mara Ecosystem

19 May 2020

Human Wildlife Conflict in Conservancies within the Mara Ecosystem

This project is a continuation and scale up of the first and second phase of the Rufford Small Grant project on Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) within the Mara Ecosystem. The first and second phase of the study covered ten conservancies. The current phase will entail similar investigation but expanded to four additional conservancies namely: Lemek/Olchoro oirouwa, Enoonkishu, Isaaten, Oloisukut, as they characteristically differ in terms of: size, composition and distance from the Maasai Mara protected area. The project will further set up identified interventions such as predator proof kraals on selected sites, as well as implement the "eye" paint on livestock, as measures to address livestock depredation. These measures will then be monitored to test their respective effectiveness in controlling livestock depredation at night when livestock have been herded, and during the day while at grazing fields. The need to understand HWC in community conservancies is indeed critical at this time as the reorganization of dispersal areas into conservancies presents unique settings when human population in the conservancies are increasing while their status changing unlike in the past. In this case there are a lot of dynamics experienced in the Mara ecosystem. Issues related to climate change and increased revenue from conservancies thereby improving community status welfare who then reinvest by increasing livestock herds and expanding settlement further, thus complicating the state of affairs with regards to human wildlife conflicts.

The project activities will comprise of designing and implementing simple, cost effective and sustainable mitigation measures, to mainly curb escalated livestock depredation cases, identified from previous investigations as the most prevalent conflict form, that seriously lead to economic losses to community, breed negative attitudes towards wildlife and leading to unintentional/intentional wildlife killings. It will conduct awareness creation among communities in matters related to HWC. It will further provide information to enhance understanding of prevalent types of HWC in Conservancies, causes of conflicts, patterns and trends of HWC based on terms of the spatial and temporal distribution as well as identify conflict hotspot zones, within individual Conservancies and overall, in the Mara ecosystem. The project will also provide an enhanced understanding of HWC in community conservation areas for efficient and sound decision making and planning purposes by wildlife managers. It will also be essential in providing networking amongst the different Conservancies, since they are inter-connected within the Mara ecosystem.

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