Establishing Cheetah Positive Landscapes of Coexistence in Athi Kapiti Plains through Focal Communities Support

3 Dec 2018 Athi Kapiti Plains, Kenya, Africa Carnivores | Habitats | Mammals

Nancy Juma


Other projects

22 Nov 2016

Promoting Cheetah-Human Co-Existence in the Athi Kapiti Plains through TALK (Training, Awareness, Learning, and Knowledge)

The proposed project takes a smaller-scale, more targeted and informed approach to address and strengthen the partially achieved objectives from previous project - RSG-1. This will address the biggest and most intractable threats to cheetah through establishing positive landscapes in Athi-Kapiti Plains (AKP). It will focus on strengthening pastoralists commitment and understanding to cheetah conservation through awareness creation, improve capacity that boost stakeholders’ sufficiency to create and build positive cheetah landscapes (CPLs), map areas where human/cheetah hotspots can be significantly reduced in AKP, involve optimal cheetah-friendly land use, livestock protection and measures to encourage the co-existence of local communities with cheetahs.

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In many regions within and outside wildlife protected areas of Kenya, cheetahs are under immense pressure from anthropogenic activities. Equally concerning is a serious lack of understanding for the intensity of these threats and their potential impact for long-term conservation and management effort (Cardillo et al. ,2005) Large movements subject cheetahs to multiple threats, including a weak law enforcement, habitat loss and fragmentation, conflict between landowners and pastoralists, loss of prey through fencing (Broekhuis et al. ,2017), poisoning from intolerant farmers and pastoralists’ who attach livestock as a source of income and socio-cultural status have caused high mortality rate of cheetahs (Marker et al. ,2008). Threats which result from numerous ultimate drivers; such as lack of capacity, resources, and political will, must be addressed if declines are to be halted. Since pastoralists are not involved in local conservation efforts they never understand their sustainable development benefits nor how to undertake them. Anthropogenic mortality is the primary cause of cheetah’s deaths in free-ranging environments (Boast et al. ,2016; Du Preez, 1970; Purchase and Vhurumuku, 2005; Weise et al. ,2015). To conserve a low density and wide-ranging species like cheetah outside NNP necessitates a paradigm shift in conservation toward a holistic approach that incentivizes protection and promotes sustainable human–wildlife coexistence across Athi Kapiti landscapes.

This project focuses on establishing positive landscapes in Athi-Kapiti Plains (AKP) and environs through capacity buiding, conducting awareness and conservation efforts that increase understanding, rehabilitate degraded areas address management concerns for the endangered cheetah. It will continue to build on our first RSG activities foundation in realizing best benefit long-term conservation of cheetah besides creating their positive landscape with the community support. Eventually we shall aggregate, disseminate of and possibly publish our projects' results and evidence in peer reviews and basic scientific sites for cheetah and other carnivore conservation action.

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