Herders, livestock invade game parks


From The Standard
August 12, 2009


By Patrick Mathangani

Thousands of livestock have been driven into ten game sanctuaries, endangering tourism and conservation efforts.

A Kenya Wildlife Service report says that invasion by herders has led to an increase in poaching, destruction of vegetation.

The situation has also disturbed wildlife migration patterns.

The report seen by The Standard yesterday names Tsavo West and East, Chyulu, Amboseli, Kora and Sibiloi as most affected.

Thousands of herders have also moved domestic animals into Bisanadi and Marsabit national reserves, while armed herders have invaded Shaba and Buffalo Springs reserves in Isiolo.

Huge resources

The herders are a big drain to KWS as efforts to drive the livestock out have gobbled up more than Sh46 million since January, says the report. This is about 70 per cent of the resources allocated to the affected parks.

More than 400,000 cattle have moved through the parks in the same period, according to the report.

"Most pastoral communities living around the parks are known to possess illegal firearms," the report adds. "These firearms are used to poach wildlife within the parks for subsistence and in some cases for trophies."

The livestock has caused irreversible damage to the ecosystem as they deplete pasture, leaving little for wild game. In Sibiloi, livestock have trampled on a prehistoric site and destroyed priceless fossils.

In some parks, wildlife have been displaced by the livestock and armed herders.

"To avoid this intrusion, wild animals move out of the protected areas into the communal lands where they cause human-wildlife conflict and become prone to poaching," says the report.

However, KWS spokeman Paul Udoto said they have embarked on an exercise to drive the herders out.

"We understand the difficulties many people are going through across the country but livestock incursion into parks and reserves as well as bush meat trade are illegal and our teams are on the alert to enforce the law," said Mr Udoto.

Attacks on tourists

The report decries attacks on tourists, saying one such assault could destroy the country’s tourism.

The famine situation has worsened human-animal conflicts. Livestock have also been affected.

Last month, 2,500 goats and 1,200 cattle succumbed to drought in northern Kenya.

Deaths due to tick borne diseases have also been reported. It is anticipated 45 per cent of the livestock in North Eastern Province alone could die due to drought and disease.

It has all been down hill since 1977, where are all the "conservationists" now, those noble people that saved the game from the hunters gun? What a sad, sad article

quote:

Originally posted by Scott450:
It has all been down hill since 1977, where are all the "conservationists" now, those noble people that saved the game from the hunters gun? What a sad, sad article

Ditto

There is a severe drought in Kenya and Tanzania. Just returned from Simanjiro and there are thousands of Maasai cattle and goats there that have almost totally depleted the available water and are eating everything in sight. Most game has moved into Tarangire Park. Few buffalo remain, and it is only a matter of time before the herdsman head toward the park, if they haven't already.

It would be simple for the Maasai to sell some cattle, raise some cash, and drill bore holes to obtain water, but they just don't see it that way and probably never will. African logic applies.

We saw several dead cattle scattered around and it is going to get much, much worse. By the time the December rains hopefully arive, I would estimate that at least a hundred thousand head will have died from thirst, and maybe many more.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott450:
It has all been down hill since 1977, where are all the "conservationists" now, those noble people that saved the game from the hunters gun? What a sad, sad article

Because it has never been about the animals to these people. All they want is to make sure people don't enjoy the process of killing animals. PERIOD!

Whether something is good or not for the species is irrelevant.

In fact if you pose the question "is allowing sport hunting preferable to extinction of a given species" they will often choose extinction. Go figure.