Wildlife Conservation and Management in Kenya: Towards a Co-management Approach

1.2 The Emergence of the Co-management Approach The failure of both the state-based and community-based models of managing wildlife and other natural resources to successfully fulfil goals of conservation and meet the socio- economic needs of the local communities is regarded as the impetus for the evolution of collaborative management (in short, co-management) approach. [...] In an attempt to improve the relationship between the state and landowners in the wildlife dispersal areas, and curb the biodiversity losses of the 1970s and 1980s, the Wildlife Act was amended in 1989 and WCMD was replaced with Kenya Wildlife Service (Barrow et al., 2001). [...] An important impact of the partnerships, which is also related to the issue of stewardship in wildlife management, is the change of attitude and perception of the landowners towards pro- conservation stakeholders and wildlife resources. [...] 4.2.3 Altering the Economic Interests of the Local Communities In analyzing the livelihood strategies of the local communities live together with wildlife, Bourn and Blench (1999) found that pastoralism, and particularly the nomadic pastoralism of the Maasai and their indigenous knowledge, are compatible with wildlife conservation. [...] This obviously contrasts with the pro-conservation stakeholders’ desire of making wildlife conservation and tourism an alternative form of land use to the farming practices of the local communities in order to enhance, through minimization of human- wildlife conflicts and costs, the co-existence of wildlife and humans.