Kenya: Elephants, Lions Top Locals' Hit List


The East African (Nairobi)

31 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008

Philip Ngunjiri
Nairobi

HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONflict continues to claim the lives of elephants and lions in and around Amboseli National Park.

In its latest report, WildlifeDirect.org says 14 jumbos were slain between January and February for reasons that range from political protest to revenge at Kenya's popular Amboseli National Park.


The report comes shortly after community conservation group Lion Guardians confirmed the slaughter of three lions in the same area - bringing the total to at least 10 lions killed in the past eight months and 162 killed near Amboseli since 2001.

In addition, the report adds that the spearing of the lions and elephants could have also arisen from local issues, such as self- or crop-protection, delinquency, and, to a lesser extent, to ivory poaching.

At least three lions and up to four elephants have been killed on the fringes of the National Park in recent weeks, conservationists say, part of an increasingly tense competition between the area's people and wildlife.

Amboseli elephants are the most celebrated wild elephants in the world. Since 1972, close observation by conservationists has led to intimate knowledge of these intelligent and complex animals, making the park Kenya's top tourist attraction.

There are 1,500 elephants in the fragile Amboseli ecosystem, which is fed by the waters of Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. An estimate from the 1970s suggests the country had 10,000 lions then, of which fewer than 3,000 now remain.

However, the park's popularity and the millions of dollars it brings in have not effectively trickled down to the Maasai people, many of whom struggle to survive alongside the luxury lodges near the park. The killings, according to experts, are the latest sign of what conservation experts say has become a nearly intractable crisis all across Kenya. Local farmers, many of them poor, have long resented elephants, lions, and other animals that are popular with tourists but that threaten livestock and crops.

Many other citizens have also grown bitter after being told to protect wildlife and facing criminal prosecution for killing animals but rarely seeing any benefit from the money that tourists pour into the economy.

In the dry season, humans and wildlife compete even more intensely than usual for dwindling grass and water.

Other members of the community are unhappy about plans to build several new lodges along the east side of the park. They argue that the owners of the new lodges reneged on promises to allow them to keep grazing their cattle on the land.

The situation has worsened following a decree issued by President Mwai Kibaki in 2005 transferring ownership of Amboseli over from the Kenya Wildlife Service to regional authorities.

THE ORDER WAS SEEN AS a bid to woo support ahead of the November 2005 referendum on the country's constitution, which flopped. The transfer has since been stalled by numerous lawsuits but may have made local officials impatient for money they believe should be theirs, say conservationists.

Spearing is the method most commonly used by the Maasai to kill the animals. According to Soila Sayialel, project manager of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project the area's human population is also exploding, putting further pressure on the ecosystem around the park, which covers about 7,800 square kilometres. The park itself is comparatively tiny at 90 sq km.

In a guest blog on WildlifeDirect.org, Sayialel says of the recent spearings in and around the 2,000-hectare Satao Elerai community conservation area some 20km southeast of the Park:

"There were several issues that I believe escalated the spearing: The people who migrated from the north to the south and from other areas due to the heavy January rains were denied grazing access in the conservation area."

The community also claimed that the management of Satao Elerai camp had created water points in the conservation area that have become a resting ground for elephants during daytime from which they go crop raiding at night.

Last year, there was also the case of a woman killed by an elephant for whose death the KWS has yet to pay compensation.

"I believe the community wanted some attention from KWS. Also, the concept of private land ownership takes time for the Maasai to adopt. I don't think that crop raiding was an issue this time after visiting the farms," Saiyalel says.

HE AND THE OTHER DIrectors of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, including iconic elephant researcher Dr Cynthia Moss, are working with the KWS, local government authorities and other NGOs to address the complex social and economic issues that inevitably arise when people and wildlife compete for land. Co-existence is possible, and experience has shown that a mutually beneficial accord can be negotiated between the wildlife and the surrounding community.

The Amboseli ecosystem stretches all the way into Tanzania. According to Dr Moss, this ecosystem is coming under heavy pressure due to subdivision of land surrounding the park for sale by private landowners who are constructing lodges or taking up farming. Moreover, local politics and the desperate need for job creation for Maasai youth are critical underlying issues.

As its longest studied wild animals, the Amboseli National Park's elephants are probably the world's most famous. These elephants are or were all known individuals who have been studied and documented since birth.

The Amboseli Elephant Research Project is the longest-running study of wild elephants in the world. It is also one of the longest uninterrupted studies of individually known mammals in the world - researchers can identify virtually each one of the 1,500 living elephants in the population.


The project works to understand the lives and ensure the future of nearly 1,500 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem.

The project is the field operation of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. The trust aims to ensure the long-term conservation and welfare of Africa's elephants in the context of human needs and pressures through scientific research, training, community outreach and public awareness.

WildlifeDirect.org, a charity based in Kenya, was founded by Richard Leakey, who envisioned the need for alternative sources of wildlife conservation funding to save Africa's rich wildlife heritage when tourism fails. Online micro-donations are received in response to conservation blogs to support field conservationists.