General
December was the wettest period we have had in over a decade, probably the wettest since the Conservancy started operation. The whole Triangle became waterlogged and most of the watercourses became impassable. There was tremendous damage to the roads and it was so wet that we were unable to work on them. The worst damage was to the gully near Naisukut, a short distance from Oloololo, it would appear that our only option will be to design and build a bridge across this gully, the problem will be on how to deal with the extremely deep and fragile soil.
We had a survey done of three potential borehole sites: Oloololo Gate, the Immigration Post at Angama and Olarokoti Secondary. There is potential for water at the gate and at the school, none near the Immigration post. We also received floor plans, a Bill of Quantities (BQ) and budget for the proposed development of the Olarokoti School and will distribute them to camps that have made pledges.
The Chief Executive met with the landlord of Oloololo on the 8th and again on the 29th, we have signed a management agreement with Oloololo and expect to start at the beginning of January 2020. He also met with Ms Nikki Fitzgerald of Angama on the 8th. The Angama Foundation should be ready to build a new toilet at the hippo pools in the New Year.
The Chief Executive met with the Chairman of KAPS on the 17th.
The Chief Executive met with the Governor of Narok County on the 19th to discuss a number of issues including upgrading the Angama airstrip, revenue collection and management of the Main Reserve.
The new solar system at Mara Serena was officially launched on the 20th and was attended by Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the Chairman and Managing Director and other very senior personnel from Tourism Promotion Services (TPS) the parent company for Serena, from OFGEN Energy and from Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS). Serena now runs wholly off solar energy, a major milestone and significant saving to the environment. I would like to congratulate TPS and the Serena group and hope that other properties will follow suit.
The Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) celebrated their 60th Anniversary on the 22nd. The celebration was attended by very senior ministers, including the vice-President. We sent our Senior Warden to represent the Conservancy.
Tourism
The extremely wet conditions in December made travelling around the Triangle very difficult. There is no doubt that we lost business as a result of the rains, we probably had 10—20% cancellations.
The balloon companies continued to operate whenever they could, although much of the area was flooded. In order to minimize damage we had the balloons land next to the main road whenever possible.
Staff
Three of our staff lost a parent in the first week of December, our commiserations to Wardens Kironkai and Langat.
All the County staff filled in their wealth declaration forms on the 6th and 7th.
Research
A paper entitled:
When good conservation becomes good economics – Kenya’s vanishing herds (2019). Damania R, Desbureaux S, Scandizzo P L, Mikau M, Gohil D, Said M. World Bank, GEF. 6141_Kenya_Wildilife_Tourism_Web (004).pdf.
Looks at the very significant declines in wildlife over the past 40 years and postulates that increased accessibility to wildlife areas through development and an improved road network has in part contributed to the decline. These roads lead to settlement and increased agriculture nearby, as people move in to benefit from easier access to markets. The authors argue that this leads to biodiversity loss and hence declines in wildlife.
They note that a buoyant wildlife-based tourism sector may not be sufficient to counter wildlife decline – look at Narok, a 70% decrease in wildlife numbers, despite having the Masai Mara, by far Kenya’s largest tourism attraction. Other Counties that are reliant on wildlife tourism such as Samburu and Isiolo have fared even worse – 79 and 76% declines respectively.
Figures 1 & 2: Wildlife declines by area and species
Source: When good conservation becomes good economics
The paper also talks about the role of conservancies in protecting wildlife and compares conservancies in the Northern half of Kenya to that in the South. There are apparently 160 conservancies in Kenya, of which 51% are on community land (I wonder how many are actually functioning – the authors say 107), these conservancies cover 3.7 million hectares, compared to the formally protected areas, which cover 4.7 million hectares. There are 2,510 beds on conservancies, of which 1,000 are supposed to be in those surrounding the Mara. Tourism accounts for 83% of the commercial income on conservancies and provides significant benefits to communities surrounding them. The paper does acknowledge that both national and county governments need to recognize the role of conservancies but, in my opinion, fall short in coming up with any sensible solutions.
I recognize that a six-fold increase in the human population in the past 55 years, coupled with the increase in the infrastructure and agriculture necessary to cater for the population has largely contributed to the declines in wildlife. Maybe these declines can be correlated to the increase in road networks and infrastructure, as argued in the paper. However, there are many factors, that in my opinion, are more important.
· Wildlife belongs to the State, landowners have responsibilities but no rights to wildlife on their land;
· Landowners bear the full cost of protecting wildlife on their land, with few opportunities of getting a decent return;
· The cost of protecting wildlife on private or communal land can be prohibitive, both in terms of time and finance;
· There are too many restrictions and regulations governing the formation of conservancies, thus decreasing the willingness of people to engage in conservation;
· Whereas there are incentives to the tourism industry and to agriculture (tax breaks, subsidies, soft loans) – there are none to conservancies, or conservation.
The above have all made conservation a poor option to landowners and in most places it can only work with:
· A thriving tourism sector, as in the Mara and parts of Kajiado;
· Wealthy, committed landowners (some of them conservation NGOs) , who can afford to bear the costs – as in Laikipia; or
· Significant donor support – as with the areas managed by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT).
None of these options can be seen as sustainable in the long term; unless wildlife conservation can be a viable, profitable source of income to landowners, they will look at other alternatives to maximize income and wildlife populations will continue to decline. The State needs to recognize that conservation is a legitimate form of land use and provide the right incentives and framework – it is not enough for the World Bank to push for the “right” development that takes into account wildlife corridors, without looking at other underlying issues.
Tourism is obviously an option in some areas, such as the Mara. But over-tourism (unregulated, uncontrolled tourism), is now having a major negative impact on wildlife – just look at the 70% decline in wildlife throughout Narok. Over-tourism has led to camps and lodges cutting off wildlife routes – nowhere more apparent than along the Talek River. Furthermore, a huge influx of people in search of income opportunities, coming to settle around the Mara, has led the formation of numerous villages and centers – all impacting wildlife and their habitat.
Conservancies obviously offer a lifeline to wildlife populations, they increase the dispersal area from formally protected areas, such as the Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo. They provide a haven for wildlife on private land, as in Laikipia and they offer supplementary income to pastoralist communities as in the North, and even the South. However, to a large extent, they are either donor or tourism driven. Both can be fickle and possibly short-term, certainly many players in the tourism industry are in it for the money and do not look at long-term conservation – nearly 50% of the camps in Mara North have changed hands in the past 10 years alone.
Wildlife
Our two cheetah were seen at Olaro Nyioke in the Lemai Wedge on the 2nd, they looked fit and healthy. They took up residence in this South western corner of the Wedge, where there were few competing predators, but our concerns about their proximity to the wa Kuria community were sadly correct – they were both killed on the 16th, when they wandered out of the Serengeti and into farmland. They were just short of two years old and had been free for nearly six months. There is no doubt that you can raise cheetah cubs and release them into the wild, our problem in the Mara is the very high concentration of competing predators – the only place the cheetah could find was right next to the western boundary of the Serengeti – where all the predators had been wiped out.
Hugo, one of the large bull elephant monitored by the Mara Elephant Project (MEP) died near Musiara on the 6th. It died of natural causes. Another elephant died on the way to Nigro-are in the Triangle and was found on the 14th. It had been dead three or four days when found and was being fed on by lions. There were no apparent injuries and we put t down as a natural dseath.
A serval cat was killed by a speeding car on the main road to Oloololo on the 7th. Over-speeding continues to be a major problem for us.
A lioness was injured in a fight on the 7th and treated by Dr Limo on the 9th, she had numerous wounds along the spine and on the back legs – none of them sufficient to incapacitate her. We continued to monitor her for weeks, the main wounds all healed by she was limping on her right front leg.
Lions moved up the escarpment in the latter half of the months and we had daily reports of lions attacking and killing cattle; one lioness was shot several times with arrows in the Enkereri manyatta, as it and two others attacked cattle and probably died. This is the first incident we have had of people retaliating against cattle killers in several years, and we agreed that there should be no compensation in this case.
Security
We only arrested two people for poaching in December, three others were arrested for cutting grass in the Lemai Wedge. Poachers continue to focus on hippo and warthog, at least four hippo were speared during the month.
Table 1 below summarises the arrests made, and snares recovered since 2017. The final columns show the totals since we started operations in June 2001. We are seeing a very significant drop, both in the number of people apprehended for poaching and the number of snares recovered. The high point was in 2016, when we arrested 434 poachers and recovered 7,781 snares. Our work with TANAPA has largely restricted poaching to a narrow belt along the western boundary of the Lemai Wedge, where people can operate without having to camp out. This collaboration has made the whole area much more secure and is clearly seen in the number of tourist camps that now operate in the northern Serengeti, nearly 60 this year, when none existed 10 years ago.
Table 1: Summary of arrests and snares
Repairs and maintenance
We have started the new housing at Iseiya, this will help reduce the congestion in the main camp.
The exceptional rains did immense damage to our roads and virtually destroyed the drift between Oloololo Gate and the Kichwa airstrip. They also flooded the lower roads between Oloololo and Purungat, forcing most traffic onto the main roads. We patched up the roads as best we could, whenever it was sufficiently dry to work.
We will have to design and build a bridge at the deep gully at Naisukut, the gully is nearly 10 meters deep and has now reached the road, eroding the culverts and destroying all the gabions that we had put in to shore up the banks.
We re-faced the wall at the main Oloololo Gate, we had to remove significant sections and then replace it. We then rehabilitated the alternate toilet at the gate – this is used in times of a water shortage, or when large school trips visit.
We collected and distributed new uniforms for all security staff and are awaiting uniforms for everyone else.
We received the Bill of Quantities (BQ), budget and design for all the proposed construction at Olarokoti Secondary School. This will be a major project and we expect contributions from the County, the Mara Conservancy and camps and lodges. We will circulate the BQ and budget to those that have already made pledges.
We collected the damaged Land Cruiser after repair – all the damaged parts were replaced by Insurance.
We purchased a new computer for Dr Takita.
Report on focus for December
Focus for January 2020
· Staff transfers on the 15th;
· Design bridge at Naisukut;
· Repair drift on way to the Kichwa Airstrip;
· Build at least one culvert;
· Repair major damage to roads;
· Continue with staff housing;
· Continue with repairs at Oloololo;
· Start on contract with Oloololo Game Ranch;
· Hopefully complete contract with the County.