Tsavo: Kenya’s Vast Wildlife Under Siege

And yet Tsavo is under siege - from both lawlessness and the burgeoning needs of a restless and poverty-stricken local community.

From ivory bandits armed with sophisticated weapons to the crude snares and traps of bushmeat hunters; from livestock incursions to charcoal burning and illegal harvesting of medicinal plants, Tsavo risks an all too familiar fate. As a result of overexploitation, community apathy, human-wildlife conflict and the loss of key elephant migratory routes due to new farming settlements, Tsavo faces risk of the gradual extermination of its wildlife population and the destruction of this critically important habitat.

Tsavo’s Achilles’ Heel

Tsavo’s greatest strength lies in its vast size. But this is also its Achilles’ heel. While size translates into more water and pasture for wildlife, it also means more rangers, fences, vehicles, aircrafts, and communication equipment for law enforcement. Emerging social and ecological complexities also demand more staff for ongoing research. There is always a pressing need for more fuel, houses for rangers and money for repairs and maintenance of buildings, equipment and infrastructure.

But because of limitations in funding, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which is responsible for management of the Parks, has focused its available resources only on critical areas such as wildlife security. As a result, the physical infrastructure within the Parks has fallen into disrepair and is in urgent need of restoration.

Thus, ill-equipped, short of required strength and faced with scant resources, KWS rangers in Tsavo are outgunned and the magnificent animals they protect at risk. Now IFAW, again in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service, is building on the examples of Meru and Addo to undertake the ambitious enhancement of Tsavo.

What IFAW is doing to help

Last September, Kenya’s Vice President Hon Moody Awori unveiled a five-year US$ 1.25 million dollar restoration programme developed by IFAW and the Kenya Wildlife Service to enhance routine operations, research and education, and wildlife security within the Tsavo National Park ecosystem. This enhancement programme will be focused on the following thematic areas:

Enhancement of Basic Park Operations, Infrastructure and Law Enforcement

The Tsavo Parks were established in the 1948. Consequently, office and residential buildings are currently inadequate and in most cases rundown.

New ranger bases are needed to house staff and to create a permanent presence in remote areas where adequate security could not be provided in the past by KWS. These operation bases form the nerve centers for anti-poaching operations in Tsavo and are instrumental to control subsistence and commercial bushmeat poaching, honey gathering, logging, and livestock incursions into the Parks.

IFAW believes that better infrastructure, enhanced mobility by security personnel, and better radio communication will guarantee wildlife and visitor security inside the Parks, increasing revenue for KWS and enhancing the ecosystem’s integrity as a safe haven for wildlife.

Wildlife Research and Education

Data collected through long-term ecological research and monitoring is necessary to improve our understanding of ecosystem functions and change in order to promote the proper management of Tsavo.

Currently neither Tsavo East nor West National Parks have the capacity to sufficiently generate, store and use scientific information for management purposes. Tsavo West research activities for instance, are conducted from a disused helicopter hangar without the barest of scientific tools. Thus, management policies and strategies as well as public awareness and environmental education programmes are not adequately informed by science.

IFAW will therefore support the establishment of a basic research infrastructure in the two Parks by equipping researcg centers in order to enhance their capacity for scientific monitoring. This includes databases on habitat and species trends. Of critical importance will be the post-release monitoring of 400 elephants whose relocation from Shimba Hills National Reserve to Northern Tsavo East began in 2005 and was aimed at curbing habitat destruction and human wildlife conflict in the forest reserve. Tsavo is probably the only park in Kenya that can provide a safe haven for other elephants in similar circumstances.  

Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution and Community Service

The Tsavo ecosystem records some of the highest incidents of human/wildlife conflict in Kenya. The greatest source of conflict is the elephant, with many flare-ups reported towards the end of the year when crops ripen. Humans are injured and sometimes killed by elephants walking through age-old migration corridors that have now been taken over by human settlements.

Increased livestock incursions (over 100,000 cattle were recorded stolen within the protected area at the last count taken in February 2005), bushmeat hunting, and encroachment along the Parks’ boundaries are also testimony to the crippling competition for resources between the local community and the Parks.

Apart from habitat damage, conflicts also negate community participation and support, which is crucial for the success of conservation and park management programmes.

As part of the restoration programme, IFAW will support initiatives aimed at conflict resolution such as the rehabilitation of dams and water points within the protected areas, the relocation of a primary school from inside the park to a selected area outside the park, and enhanced capacity for ranger patrols in human/elephant conflict areas.