COVID-19 EFFECTS ON WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SAVING VULTURES FROM POISONING SCOURGE CLIMBING UGANDA’S MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON ILLEGAL TRADE IN CHEETAH CUBS UNABATED PROFILES OF BIG 5 OF WILDLIFE FILMMAKERS MARK DEEBLE & PHOTOGRAPHY VICTORIA STONE INITIATIVE NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK ADVOCACY A review of the Nairobi National Park plan 2020-2030 Restoration calls for good science to guide management. fodder to herbivores wary of lurking TOP predators. The predators, short of Giraffees in the Nairobi National wild prey, often turn on livestock. The Park with a view of Nairobi city in the background. airobi National Park paucity of wildlife and dense cover (NNP) was gazetted as has weakened the tourist appeal of Kenya’s first park in 1946, the park, further diminished by an a far less populous era. overhead rail, the southern bypass, NIn 1967, as a graduate student at the and now a goods depot. programme which lowered citizen University of Nairobi, I watched the No wish or plan can bring back rates and offered free days. Today wealth of plains animals move from the great migrations. We do, though, two-thirds of all visitors to the park the short-cropped plains into the have a last chance to keep wildlife are Kenya citizens and residents. valleys and swamps as the season movements alive and restore a With the booming growth and wealth hardened, tracked by lions and semblance of the park’s 1960s of Nairobi, the problem will become cheetahs. A wildlife spectacle, the spectacle and appeal. not too few tourists, but how many park gave tourists their first views of But a park for whom? In the 1960s, Kenyan enthusiasts the park can lions, cheetahs, giraffes, buffalos and Kenya’s parks drew tourists from accommodate without being loved rhinos. around the world, earning the nation to death. On the 75th anniversary of Today the great migrations have foreign exchange for development. parks, it is time for Kenya Wildlife vanished, the herds blocked by Missing from the crowds of visitors Service to prepare a 10-year plan fences, homes and roads. Wildlife were any Kenyans, alienating parks for NNP. A lack of vision and tardy numbers have shrunk as eye-height from its citizenry. On the 50th management has hastened the park’s grasses have encroached for lack anniversary of NNP, the president decline. Now is the time to rethink its of grazing and fire, offering poor launched a Parks for Kenyans future. 8 | JULY - SEPTEMBER 2020 NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK TOP Within NNP, ecological restoration is rightly There has not been constant human wildlife conflict it has only come the central plank of the plan, aiming to restore about because people and livestock vegetation health and wildlife populations. now occupy the southern boundary in recent times. The southern corridor was once a great migration route Born in the colonial era, Kenya’s meetings, the plan addresses many of but human over population has first-generation parks were run on the concerns and suggestions raised. encroached. military grounds to curb poaching The broad goals for NNP and defend boundaries. The 2020-2030 match the Wildlife second-generation parks engaging Management Act 2013 vision that communities in the dispersal areas parks should conserve representative engagement and education, a were a big step forward. The third- areas, biodiversity and remain security programme and parks generation parks in the 21st century “unimpaired”. The specific goals operation and management steps. must engage all its citizens by for NNP include the protection, It goes on to offer four options for diversifying its appeal, inviting new restoration and management of securing and restoring the park: 1) nature enterprises, and divesting diverse and critical habitats and maintain the status quo; 2) improve operations to capable partners able important and threatened species habitat health through controlled to reduce the overburden of costly such as rhinos, lions and vultures. burning, mowing and mineral KWS management. The plan notes the threats of supplementation; 3) enclose the park How does the plan stand up to the habitat loss and fragmentation in with a predator-proof fence, and challenges? the dispersal areas, falling wildlife 4) improve habitats and win more The first iteration of the NNP numbers, poaching, human- space for wildlife by fencing willing 2020-2030 plan was rushed through wildlife conflicts, invasive species, landowners within a southern buffer with scant public engagement, pollution, low park visitation and zone. fueling hostility and suspicion over other concerns. The plan proposes KWS has chosen the fourth option proposals to develop a lodge and a five-point response: ecological after consultation with the southern other tourist facilities inside the park. restoration, tourism development landowners. The plan will win space After heated objections and further and management, community for wildlife and insulate dense JULY - SEPTEMBER 2020 | 9 NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK settlements around Tuala and Rongai for birds and small mammals with TOP from lion and hyena incursions. little need of further management. The Nairobi National Park is the only KWS should use the success of the The denser herds of wildlife in the game park in the world within a city but its future is in doubt. The park faces Aberdares fence to adopt a phased park will reduce the predator attacks encroachment from private developers approach. Phase 1 should encompass on livestock outside and increase and public infrastructure continues to willing landowners flanking the viewing attractions and visitor put pressure on the land. Mbagathi River and curb predator carrying capacity. incursions into the Tuala-Rongai The success of ecological area. Phase 2 should extend the fence restoration will depend on close east of Maasai Gate to the rail line. monitoring and adapting plans as Phase 3, which calls for extensive needed. Restoration calls for good Big Five tourism. Any further discussions, should include the science to guide management, rather accommodation in the park should conservancies and extend as far south than the whims of wardens and be rejected. Nairobi has unfilled as possible - subject to KWS agreeing conservation lobbyists who have held hotel space and new ecotourist to expand yet further if options open. sway for lack of a guiding plan. At a accommodation should be developed Within NNP, ecological restoration time of tight government budgets and in the buffer areas to benefit is rightly the central plank of the volatile tourism, KWS should engage conservation-minded communities plan, aiming to restore vegetation partners to help with the intensive and keep the park “unimpaired” as health and wildlife populations. Fire ecological monitoring the plan calls the Wildlife Conservation Act calls and mowing are necessary to reverse for. Here I suggest using NGOs with for. The existing tented camp in woody encroachment, restore habitat years of experience and contracting the park should be upgraded to a diversity, wildlife numbers and, I universities to use the park for study small high-end facility where guests would add, the resilience of the park and research. KWS should also pay a large conservation fee for the to droughts and climate change. hold workshops every two years to privilege. Creating short-grass grazing arenas appraise the progress, solicit feedback The plan to boost tourism and will start a positive feedback reversing and adapt the park plans as needed. increase revenues is commendable the decades of ecological decline. The The tourism plan calls for but overlooks the future surge in ecological restoration will replenish diversifying visitor use by upgrading citizen and resident visitors. Kenya’s wildlife numbers, improve plant nature trails, overlooks and picnic parks will be secure only when its diversity and pasture quality for sites. This will help reduce the citizens discover them as places of herbivores and create micro-habitats vehicular congestion caused by their own. The plan is silent though 10 | JULY - SEPTEMBER 2020 NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK on how to manage the large influx of The plan to improve the Nairobi Nairobi National Park, for example, visitors already tarnishing its tourism Safari Walk will introduce more to deploy docents to assist its staff image. Kenyans to the wildlife in semi- with visitor management and The community engagement and natural settings and invite them interpretive services. education outlined in the plan is vital to visit NNP. The Wildlife Clubs If the NNP 2020-2030 plan to its success. I am pleased to see of Kenya have a vital role to outsources and engages the public as KWS has adopted the community’s play in engaging and educating envisaged in the Kenya Constitution suggestion of setting up a Water schoolchildren. On the other hand, 2010 and the National Wildlife Resources Users Association to save the Orphanage is a third-rate zoo, Strategy 2030, the future of the park and restore the Mbagathi River, the which flies in the face of Kenya’s will be secure. Central Park, Bronx lifeline of the park and frontage for commitment to animal welfare. Its Zoo and the Botanical Gardens are landowners. Heavily polluted and a purpose is to restore rescued animals the pride of New York. Kenya has danger to animal and human health, to the wild, so should be sited next a place far more spectacular and a catchment association will unite to a large park where animals can be unique at the doorstep of its capital, a KWS and the community in restoring released place we call Nairobi National Park, a the river and perpetuate its dwindling Finally, the plan has far too place nature made for us. flow. Good riparian management will many subsidiary plans for KWS ensure wildlife access to the south to implement alone. KWS should DAVID WESTERN is the of the park, stimulate conservation focus on the big picture and key Founder and Chairman of enterprises, and afford space for goals, give a hierarchy of priorities the African Conservation Nairobi residents to walk, bird, for the dozens of smaller plans, Centre (ACC).