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Introduction: Conserving Wildlife in Kenya's Ewaso Landscape

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Introduction: Conserving Wildlife in Kenya's Ewaso Landscape Introduction: Conserving Wildlife in Kenya’s Ewaso Landscape Nicholas J. Georgiadis he papers assembled in this volume are disparate in subject, discipline, treatment, and outlook, but they have two unifying threads. The first is that directly or indirectly, they all address aspects of what in recent Tdecades has become a global environmental imperative, generally re- ferred to as “landscape conservation.” The second is that all chapters focus geographically on the Ewaso landscape in northern Kenya (defined in Box 1; outlined by a rectangle in the inset of Figure 1), where concerted and prodi- gious efforts to conserve wildlife and natural resources over the last 20 years have achieved substantial progress. This work is not a “how- to” handbook, nor does it aim to cover all aspects of this increasingly complex and multifaceted endeavor. Rather, it provides an opportunity to document progress in ways in- tended to facilitate further advancement toward landscape conservation in this and other regions like it. In this introduction, a brief history recounts how conservation strategies at global, national, and local levels have changed from an almost exclusive focus on charismatic species and protected areas to emphasizing landscape- level pro- cesses, human communities, and economic incentives. The structure of the book is described, with sketches of the rationale and content of each paper. The final section sketches the outlook for wildlife in Kenya’s landscapes. CHANGING PARADIGMS IN CONSERVATION Nicholas J. Georgiadis, Property and Environ- ment Research Center, 2048 Analysis Drive, Suite The late 1980s marked a turning point for conservation in a district of A, Bozeman, Montana 59718, USA. Correspon- northern Kenya, across much of Africa, and throughout the world in distinct dence: [email protected]. but related ways. In the Laikipia rangelands of northern Kenya, ranchers who Manuscript received 7 January 2009; accepted 18 had once regarded wildlife as a liability began to collaborate with each other May 2010. in the conservation and management of wildlife on their land. At the time, the 2 • SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGY BOX 1. Defining the Ewaso ecosystem. For the purposes of this book, the Ewaso ecosystem is arbitrarily defined by the geographical extents of two large- scale pro- cesses that have been selected as long- term targets for conservation: dry- season river flow and elephant migration. Two “water towers” that collect much of the region’s rainfall, the Aberdare Range (3,999 m) in the southwest and Mount Kenya (5,199 m) in the southeast, are drained to the north by many streams that ultimately combine to form two perennial rivers (Figure 1). These are the Ewaso Nyiro and Ewaso Narok, which are confluent in the central “Laikipia Plateau,” continuing to flow northward and then eastward through the Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba National Reserves and ultimately to the Lorian Swamp. This drainage system is not exceptional in that water abstraction for irrigation and household use has escalated in recent decades, particularly in the upper reaches of the catchment, leaving progressively less water available for people, livestock, and wildlife in the drylands below. Accordingly, the functional ecosystem “boundary” encompasses the upper drainage basin of the Ewaso Nyiro and Ewaso Narok rivers as far as the eastern boundary of Samburu District. Elephants have been shown to migrate immense distances up and down elevation and rainfall gradients in this region, seeking food and water on a seasonal basis. Reasoning that the viability of elephants in the region depends on their seasonal migrations, and that if elephant migration can be conserved, then many other species and ecosystem processes will also benefit, elephants have assumed strategic prominence in conservation planning for this landscape. Accordingly, the known extents of their migrations beyond the Ewaso Basin are also encompassed within the rectangle that delineates the Ewaso ecosystem. These criteria define a vast (~40,000 km2) and geographically diverse region, including the entirety of Laikipia District (9,666 km2) and parts of adjacent Samburu, Meru, Isiolo, and Marsabit Districts to the north and east (Figure 2). A wide diversity of habitats, land cover types, and land uses (Figure 2) are associated with the elevation and climatic gradients that characterize this region, from cool, wet highlands in the south to hot, dry lowlands in the north. Most of the wildlife occur in the wetter, south- western sector of the region, on private ranches in Laikipia District (Figure 3). These range from alpine moorlands above 3,000 m on Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range, through protected montane rain forests and an intensively cultivated moist zone to dry savanna grasslands and bushlands at lower elevations. Mean annual rainfall varies from around 300 mm in the northeast to more than 1000 mm in the south, increasing with elevation to around 1300 mm in the forested zones on Mount Kenya. Rainfall is highly variable but trimodal, falling mainly in April–May, November, and August, with a pronounced dry season in January–March. dominant conservation paradigm in Africa, which had 2000) and by growing recognition of the potential value fixated on large mammals in protected areas for over 60 of wildlife on their land. After a 14- year hiatus, Kenya years, began to be replaced by a more inclusive approach, was once again experimenting with sanctioned harvesting which recognized humans as an integral component of of wildlife on private land (Kock, 1995). Those wishing to biodiverse landscapes and the need for conservation to ac- participate were required by the national conservation au- count human needs and effects. The persistence of biodi- thority, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), to create and join versity was seen to depend on active conservation not only management associations. To meet this need, the Laikipia in parks and reserves but also in areas that lacked formal Wildlife Forum (LWF) was launched in 1991 as a com- protection, and were occupied by humans and livestock pany of private and communal landholders with a shared (see discussion in Hutton et al., 2005). At the same time, a interest in wildlife management and conservation. With conceptual revolution among public and private agencies investors foreseeing greater returns from nonconsumptive in the United States sparked what is today a global con- uses of wildlife, ecotourism enterprises proliferated on servation agenda, originally known as “ecosystem man- private and communal properties in the region. Coopera- agement” (Grumbine, 1994, 1997; Keough and Blahna, tion among landholders favoring wildlife was spurred by 2006), that aims to sustain the integrity of ecological pro- growing awareness of the need to maintain sufficient space cesses across vast landscapes. Twenty years on, the papers for species like elephants, lions, and wild dogs, whose sur- in this volume document some of the approaches and vival depended on continuing freedom to range across far progress toward landscape conservation that have been greater areas than even the largest individual property. achieved in the Ewaso landscape of northern Kenya. That most of Africa’s protected areas were never de- Ranchers in Laikipia District, the southwestern sector signed to maintain, on their own, ecologically viable pop- of the Ewaso region, were motivated to promote wildlife ulations of these wide- ranging mammals has long been as a source of income by a weakening beef market (Heath, recognized and often repeated, at least in the conservation number 632 • 3 FIGURE 1. Relief and drainage in the Ewaso ecosystem. The region is bounded in the west by the Rift Valley and in the south by Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Highlands. Protected areas are outlined in white as fol- lows: 1, Samburu National Reserve (NR); 2, Shaba NR; 3, Buffalo Springs NR; 4, Mount Kenya National Park (NP); 5, Aberdare NP; 6, Karisia Hills Forest Reserve (FR); 7, Maralal FR; 8, Matthews Range FR; 9, Loisai NR; 10, Ndoto Mountains FR. Major rivers are as follows: 11, Ewaso Nyiro; 12. Ewaso Narok. literature (Soulé et al., 1979; Western and Ssemakula, this land, wildlife is a liability. They may incur losses from 1981; Western, 1982, 1989; Western and Gichohi, 1993; crop raiding or be threatened or even killed by elephants, Newmark, 1996, 2008). In most cases, the wild animals and their livestock are vulnerable to predators and dis- that generate tourism revenue for national or local gov- ease (Woodroffe et al., 2005). Almost invariably, wildlife ernments within unfenced parks and reserves would soon ultimately lose these conflicts with humans, becoming dis- perish if denied access to surrounding lands that are pri- placed by development and incompatible land use changes. vately or communally held. But to most who own or use As a result, wildlife is increasingly confined to protected 4 • SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGY FIGURE 2. Land use in the Ewaso ecosystem. islands that are too small to ensure their long- term viabil- 1994; Barrow and Murphree, 2001; Fabricius et al., 2004; ity. With diminishing options to expand existing parks and Child, 2004). reserves, attention turned toward habitat and biodiversity Similar concerns in North America about the inad- conservation in areas that were not formally protected, equacy of national parks to sustain viable populations of most of them communally owned or used. A variety of large mammals like grizzly bears and progressive
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