Community conservation efforts in northern Kenya have improved habitat for wildlife and well-being for people.

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2 Summary Community conservation efforts in northern Kenya have improved habitat for wildlife and well-being for people. The conservation efforts increased the productivity of grasslands, increased residents access to education and timber resources, and strengthened their social safety nets. As the impacts of climate change are magnified in Kenya, conservation efforts that increase community resilience will become even more critical.cover:?????

3 Potentially Benefiting 1 Million Kenyans: Why This Initiative is So Important Kenya s growing emphasis on locally led development and decentralization of power raises a question: Can local communities in the poorest parts of the country manage their natural resources so that they are sustainable for both people and nature? A new two-year study says yes and shows how a homegrown conservation initiative in Kenya has generated measurable benefits for local people and grasslands. The study sponsored by the Northern Rangelands Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Southampton and others found that community conservation efforts to manage land and natural resources in northern Kenya increased residents access to resources and strengthened their social safety nets. The initiatives, known as community conservancies, also helped increase grass growth for both wildlife and livestock in areas subjected to improved grazing management. In fact, these community conservancies produced such dramatic results that other residents in the region want to start their own conservancies meaning the initiative could eventually benefit 1 million Kenyans and several million hectares of grassland habitat. That s great news for a remote area of Kenya that has suffered long and frequent droughts, which computer models predict will be intensified by climate change. 1

4 Climate, Drought and Conflict: The Challenges Facing Northern Kenya Northern Kenya boasts some of the most striking landscapes and critical wildlife habitats in East Africa. It is also home to a number of pastoralist communities who are dependent on a livestock-based livelihood system. Poverty rates in the region are among the highest in the world around 40 percent in a year with adequate rainfall, and more than double that during extended droughts. That s why healthy grasslands are crucial for both northern Kenya s people and its spectacular wildlife. The drought killed percent of the livestock in the region and drove food prices up 130 percent, spurring migration of various ethnic groups looking for access to grazing lands and leading to increased poaching of wildlife and conflicts over limited natural resources such as water and forage. Increasingly, northern Kenya faces the effects of climate change, which threatens to deepen the region s vulnerability to poverty by reducing the productivity of these essential grasslands. Rainfall in East Africa has already declined by 15 percent since the 1980s, and climate change is expected to bring less predictable rains and more frequent droughts to the region. 2

5 The Grass Banks are the Community s Savings Account Faced with these threats, local communities and other stakeholders involved in biodiversity conservation began organizing community-based conservancies in 1995, and in 2004 six conservancies joined together to form the Northern Rangeland Trust (NRT). Today, NRT has grown to 19 conservancies encompassing 1.2 million hectares (more than 3 million acres) of grasslands. Portions of each community conservancy are zoned exclusively for wildlife, other portions are reserved for domestic livestock, with the remainder reserved as a buffer zone that functions as a community grass bank. Here s how it works: When rains are favorable, wildlife have the run of the buffer zones, while the community herds graze areas reserved for domestic livestock. When drought hits, the community opens portions of the buffer zones so livestock can graze grass that the community banked when rains were favorable. NRT helps conservancies manage community grasslands and optimize their value for both wildlife and domestic stock in good times and bad. But how well are these community conservancies working for people and nature especially in times of drought? That s the question asked by the new study, which surveyed 670 households and held numerous focus group discussions and individual interviews with key people inside and outside of three community conservancies. Researchers measured more than four-dozen socioeconomic indicators for three study sites within the conservancies and six matched control sites. The study also used remote-sensing satellite images of conserved grasslands to compare with images from equivalent control sites. 3

6 The results were striking: Improved grassland health. Community conservancy grasslands had greater productivity and more moisture in the soil compared to similar grasslands outside the protection zones. Vegetation cover in the community conservancies increased significantly in both dry and rainy seasons in 2000 and There were grassland benefits not only within the wildlife zones, but also in the buffer and grazing zones where grass growth increased because of better management. Better access to resources. People who were part of the conservancies had increased access to a variety of resources compared with those outside the conservancies. For instance, compared to control sites, conservancy residents had an average of 15 percent more young people attending secondary school because of scholarships provided by the conservancies, 40 percent better access to affordable transportation because of conservancy vehicles giving rides to villagers, and 35 percent better access to timber resources because of education efforts to protect large trees. Stronger social safety net. During the drought, some people in the conservancy communities were not forced to sell their livestock at very low prices because there was still grass in the grass banks to feed their animals. The grass reserves helped these communities to recover faster from the drought and gave them greater resilience against climate change impacts. The community patrols around their conservancies also had a widely appreciated benefit: People felt safer, and there was less banditry and cattle theft than in the control sites. While people in the conservancies didn t experience increases in income or livestock over those in the control sites, their wellbeing in terms of resources and safety nets was clearly better than those not in conservancies, especially during the drought. The grass banks are the community s savings account, said one resident. That success hasn t gone unnoticed in the region: 13 other communities have asked NRT for capacity-building support to set up their own conservancies, an expansion The Nature Conservancy is helping. Such an expansion would cover an area supporting almost 1 million Kenyans while also protecting wildlife and ensuring the heart of Kenya s grasslands stay ecologically connected. 4

7 What These Findings Mean Going Forward Northern Kenya is home to some of the oldest human-inhabited landscapes on earth. People here have been a part of nature for a long, long time. This study shows that reestablishing a balance in the landscape between no use and overuse benefits both nature and people and makes both more resilient to the growing threat of climate change. To read the full study, see: Glew, L., M.D. Hudson, & P.E. Osborne (2010) Evaluating the effectiveness of community conservation in northern Kenya. A report to The Nature Conservancy. University of Southampton. This research was funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Training Grant, Marwell Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, Schooner Foundation, The Tropical Agriculture Association, and the University of Southampton. All photos: Tim Boucher 5

8 BETTER GRASSLANDS MANAGEMENT BENEFITS PEOPLE AND NATURE: A CASE STUDY FROM NORTHERN KENYA