LET'S NOT REDUCE OUR PRECIOUS WILDLIFE TO STEAKS

CALLING ON ALL KENYANS TO URGENTLY CONTRIBUTE VIEWS TOWARDS THE WILDLIFE UTILIZATION CONVERSATION. LET US NOT REDUCE OUR PRECIOUS WILDLIFE TO STEAKS. WE MUST AVERT A COURSE OF HISTORY THAT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER FROM.

This morning a friend of mine suggested I was extreme with my concern about predictions of where wildlife utilization discussion at the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife are going.

He said "I really don't think the Ministry intends for wildlife utilization to include hunting"

Me "Did you really think they would put the SGR across Nairobi Park?"

Him "Good point"

We didn’t question the move of 14 rhinos from Nairobi Park and Nakuru Park to Tsavo East because we trusted that the powers that be had thought this through. Perhaps it was our silence that allowed 11 of our national treasures to be killed due to negligence and mismanagement. Perhaps, if we had spoken out, this tragedy could have been prevented. More importantly, we must never be silent again, especially when we are given the opportunity to speak out. Now more than ever, the voices of Kenyans count for our wildlife.

As the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife embarks on a campaign to listen to Kenyans about their views on consumptive utilization of wildlife, I call on all Kenyans to speak out, to contribute to the conversation and to prevent another disaster from unfolding under out watch.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, consumptive utilization of wildlife is the promise of food security, jobs, income and wildlife security. All of these promises align with the Presidents Big Four. But let us define this more precisely. Consumptive utilization means quotas for killing animals on group ranches and conservancies for sale to local restaurants that are frequented by tourists. Is this something that we should do?

During the next month (August 2018), the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife is embarking on a series of public meetings to discuss the possibility of wildlife utilization in the country. The exercise has been tasked to a task force led by conservationists from the private sector.

Let me not mince words here. Wildlife utilization is the sanitized words for culling, cropping and possibly hunting, purportedly to save it. Put simply, it is the killing of wildlife.

That Kenya’s wildlife is in dire trouble and urgently needs to be saved is not in doubt. Studies indicate nearly eighty percent declines of our wildlife in recent decades. The reasons for these declines include loss of wildlife real estate outside of our parks and reserves to development and agriculture, as well as poaching. Our wildlife landscapes and vast dispersal areas have become an obstacle course of fences and roads that wildlife can no longer cross. And we have strangled vital wildlife corridors that once allowed wildlife to traverse the country in search of breeding grounds, dry season water, fodder, and mineral rich springs. Regardless of any conservation intervention we have to be realistic – with an estimated 70 percent of our wildlife depending on areas outside of the parks for all or part of the year, and with a human population growth of over 3% per annum, the situation will only get much worse with time. We are degrading and transforming key ecosystems including forests, swamps, lakes and savannas resulting in landscapes that are no longer habitable by wildlife, and that are increasingly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change which will bring increasingly frequent and more severe droughts and flood. Combined with human population growth and expansion, this means that we do not have that many options for wildlife left. Making the right decision now is therefore vital.

Kenya has some of the worlds most exceptional protected areas that could sustain our wildlife diversity in the long term if core areas are protected and corridors and dispersal areas are safe. In addition to state owned real estate, we also have a good network of successful private conservancies. These are sustained by eco-tourism businesses and philanthropy. But most of the 160 conservancies, which make up 8 percent of the country’s land area, and which are primarily owned by communities, are an economic burden to their owners. Communities are not natural born tour operators or eco-tourism business managers. Not surprisingly, most conservancies cannot compete with parks in terms of wildlife, and are unlikely to ever deliver on income generation or job creation through tourism or philanthropy. While the conservancies provide unquestioned benefits for wildlife, they are a severe economic burden to the owners who earn little money, have given up development options, and who incur costs such as disease transmission to livestock, conflict and reduced pasture for livestock. With most conservancy leases coming up for renewal in the next 5 years, the decision of these landowners to change land use will be crucial moment for the future of wildlife in Kenya.

To save our wildlife, the Ministry of Tourism (which was very recently expanded to include Wildlife from the ministry of Environment), has suggested a radical shift from the past – to create a legal frame work for the utilization of wildlife as an economic incentive for land owners, particularly communities. In it’s crudest form, wildlife utilization has been described as the sale of zebra steaks in Nairobi restaurants. Utilization, we are told, will have three key benefits – it will support national food security, improve tourism, create employment and income for communities. The theory of change is that by giving economic value for wildlife to communities, they will naturally conserve it.

Kenyans, including this one, are deeply skeptical.

Here’s why

First, if we haven’t even been able to develop and maintain relevant regulations and infrastructure for livestock production, then it is unlikely that we will be able to do so for wildlife, a sector that has been chronically underfunded for decades. Expecting effective enforcement of regulations by a wildlife authority that it's self is in a major crisis is asking for trouble.

Secondly, it is very unlikely that wildlife utilization will enable rural communities to manage, and benefit directly from wildlife. Most communities that still live with wildlife, do so for two reasons. Either they are extremely poor or they wildlife protection is part of their culture and tradition. To expect such people to manage investments in the highly specialized wildlife breeding and harvesting is unrealistic, and if we are to be truthful then we will admit that the only people who will be able to exploit such a business opportunity would be private land owners, many of whom are already wealthy and are not indigenous Kenyans. The separation of Kenyans from their land for outsiders to exploit wildlife through utilization will deepen already festering wounds. To Kenyan people this will be viewed as another form of land alienation, loss of grazing lands and exploitation of their wildlife by outsiders. Large tracts of land have already been set aside in for conservation thanks to tens of millions of dollars from donor funds have been pumped into external organisations for fulfillment of programme goals, but there is little evidence of significant rural development. Indeed conservancies in Kenya today are still largely dependent on donors, with few demonstrating financial self-reliance. Not surprisingly, in some parts of Kenya, conservation efforts have bred resentment from the very communities it purports to serve.

Thirdly, consuming wildlife is at odds with the cultural beliefs and practices of Kenya’s pastoral people such as the Maasai and Samburu, who represent the main communities that still live with wildlife. If the main economic option offered to peoples is the consumptive utilization, Kenya risks permanently altering valuable powerful cultural relationship with wildlife, and ancient traditions that have supported wildlife conservation for millennia. This will simply be viewed as unacceptable - you wouldn't ask a Muslim to eat pork because it is simply not acceptable. Don't ask Africans to kill and eat wildlife if our traditions and culture do not accept it.

Finally, we should not be repeating experiments - consumptive utilization has been tried and it failed in Kenya before due to mismanagement. This is not surprising and has been the same in other countries that have poor history of governance like Zimbabwe where the Campfire program collapsed despite huge promises. We must not be afraid to learn from other countries like South Africa, where consumptive utilization has become an economic reason for the multiplication of wildlife, but we must avoid the pitfalls such as the fact that conservation has only enriched elite non-indigenous Africans, with little revenue reaching local communities, insignificant benefits to household income, and communities bearing the burden of costs associated with living with wildlife. In most examples of wildlife utilization in Africa, Africans have benefited only from menial jobs and minimal economic development. The alienation of land and animals from Africans in South Africa has created a dangerous disconnect that decades later means that most people of colour in South Africa have little or no interest in wildlife, and even though land ownership has been restored to black South Africans, the business of utilization and hunting is conducted only by whites.

We must not be afraid to chart our own future for ourselves and our relationship with wildlife. The Kenyan constitution promises the devolution of wildlife management and therefore County Governments must take up their role and invest in these vital conversations about the future of conservation.

Kenya is in a unique position to lead a proudly African approach to successful conservation – By Kenyans for Kenya. Unlike so many parts of Africa, people in Kenya know a lot and care deeply about wildlife, -this is in part because we still retain deep cultural attachments to wildlife in our names and stories. But it is more than that. We have had decade of brave and proud leadership on wildlife matters from the burning of ivory in 1989 which ended the trade in ivory, to the first and only Nobel Peace Prize going to environmentalist and forest champion Wangari Maathai. According to an Ipsos survey in 2017, over 80% of adults in Kenya recognize that the main value of wildlife is to the Kenyan economy through tourism. Up to 40% of Kenyans have an interest in wildlife and watch wildlife films on television. Nearly half of all Kenyans said they wanted to volunteer to save wildlife. While Kenyans have largely ignored the unfolding corruption scandals in the country, the response to the deaths of 11 black rhinos during a failed translocation in July included vociferous calls for the resignation of the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife. We must not underestimate the seriousness with which Kenyans care about wildlife, indeed we should capitalize on this interest and put Kenyans at the forefront of designing her own conservation strategy – and ensure that the strategy defends Kenyan national policies on land reform and wildlife management that benefits Kenyans. We must not be hoodwinked into believing that the future of wildlife depends on consumptive utilization for foreign markets in terms of business, tourism, meat and other products such as ivory or rhino horn. For wildlife to survive outside of our parks and reserves, community conservancies must thrive on economic, ecological and social levels. They must become are self-managed and independent of external organisations that are currently the main beneficiaries of the most from millions of donor funds and revenues.

What alternatives do conservancies have? Well, the options are invinite .. we just need to get creative brains together with land owners, and investors to come up with wildlife friendly, culturally sensitive options. Killing wildlife is not the only option. Film making, photography, education, plant based businesses, research, carbon credits, breeding endangered species... there are many many other opportunities. We do not need get rich quick solutions. We need sustainable solutions.

While the Consumptive Utilization Task Force tours the country to talk to Kenyans I encourage all Kenyans to participate. You can submit a letter to the Task Force in order to have your say.

1. You can attend any of the regional meetings and raise any of these issues

2. You can send a letter. To ensure transparency, make your letter public and have your letter sent by registered mail.

3. Copy your letters and views with your governor and county conservation committee.

Why you should speak out. Let us not reduce our precious wildlife to steaks. Let us speak out to alter the course of history - because if it all goes wrong it will not just be 9 rhinos that die, but will we be willing to accept responsibility?

Write your views to

Ben Okita

Chair of the Wildlife Utilization Task Force

okita@savetheelephants.org

cc. Najib Balala

CS Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife

Conservation Alliance of Kenya

You can also post your letter on my time line as a public record.

Save the date: This is the schedule of meetings (venues and times have not yet been circulated.

Laikipia 31st July

Isiolo 1st August

Meru 2nd August

Wajir 6th August

Nyeri 8th August

Magadi 31st July

Mara 2nd August

Lodwar 6th August

Lamu 8th August

Conservation Alliance Nairobi 13th August

KWS and other government agencies 14th August

KEPSA 15th August

Youth 16th August

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