Fighting poaching in Africa: – why it is so important (to the country and to the wider world), who is charged with enacting it, and how the global citizen can help.
Kenya’s wildlife is world-renowned. As home to the Maasai Mara, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and host to the Great Migration, the largest mass migration of mammals on the planet, it is not difficult to see why.
Currently, the Kenyan and Tanzanian wildlife authorities are in talks to conduct a region-wide census of the two countries’ megafauna.
This census, when it happens, will give all of us a better idea of exactly how large the populations of large mammals in East Africa are. Considering as this is likely to be the first census that can rely on modern satellite imaging software to conduct it, it will be the most accurate account ever compiled on Africa’s wildlife populations.
(If you want to read more about how satellite imagery is being used for conservation, you can do so here)
This census will therefore tell us just how important these two countries are in the conversation of wildlife conservation in Africa. But even without it, we know that Kenya and Tanzania are host to some of Africa’s largest populations of mega fauna.
Those that protect this wildlife play a very important role
In Kenya, wildlife protection is the purview of the Kenya Wildlife Service, or KWS. This organisation’s role is very important for a number of reasons. Kenya’s wild areas boast some of the greatest biodiversity in terms of large mammals in the world.
Its national parks are largely considered to be some of the last bastions of truly wild and untouched areas. As a result, Kenya’s wild spaces garner significant global attention. Its animals and savannahs have become symbols of the wild. Their destruction, their shrink, the hurdles that are faced by those protecting it act as a reflection of humanity’s reach and affect.
Because of this increased scrutiny on Kenya’s wild, coupled with the huge human population growth in the country, the job of protecting wildlife is made that little bit more complicated.
Fortunately, the KWS is one of the best-trained wildlife services in the world.
Their training institute, based in Naivasha, 90km away from the country’s capitol, Nairobi, is an award winning place of learning.
In 2016, the KWS received the best ecotourism training eco-warrior award. According to the stipulations of that award, the KWS Training Institute offered, in 2016, the best form of training in the field of ecotourism.
The fact that it is ecotourism which is most celebrated at the KWS training institute offers a telling insight into the dual role this organisation plays. The conservation of wildlife is indelibly tied to tourism. It is largely through the monies generated through this industry that Kenya’s national parks are maintained and protected.
Though the individuals that comprise this organisation are well trained in some of the more traditionally associated elements of conservation – in ranging, wildlife management, and in the various techniques necessary for the fight against poaching – they are also trained in tourism and hospitality management.
This combined qualification sets them up well for the construction and maintenance of the modern world’s wild spaces. The wild, on its own and without human intervention, is under threat. It is only as a result of the Kenyan Wildlife Service’s informed treatment of it that it can be maintained in a way which protects the wildlife that is under its jurisdiction as well as the human beings that live nearby.
Those employed by the KWS come from all walks of life, from all across Kenya. Many, especially amongst the ranks of the KWS scouts, have grown up around the wild. The organisation draws many of its recruits from the Maasai tribe who traditionally practice a nomadic existence in Kenya’s wildest spaces.
If you want to learn more about the make-up of the KWS and how it recruits from the Maasai tribe – traditional nomadic pastoralists who live in Kenya’s wildest climes –, you can do so here.
How you can help
With tourism to Kenya affected by the coronavirus and travel restrictions incurred by it, funding for the organisations association with protection of Kenya’s wild spaces is down. You can learn more about how tourism can help in the push to conserve wildlife by visiting the KWS page here:
http://kws.go.ke/content/investment-procedures
The Tsavo Trust is a charitable not-for-profit that uses financial backing gained through donations to fund the protection of Kenya’s large-tusked elephants. If you want to donate to us, you can do so by following this link: