 AMBOSELI -TSAVO GAME SCOUTS
PROJECT OBJECTIVES: Training community members to take an active role in the generation and distribution of environmental information enhances community awareness and involvement in biodiversity conservation.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: ACC has been training community members to take an active role in wildlife monitoring, community conflict resolution, collecting ecological data and the generation and distribution of environmental information to enhance community awareness of biodiversity and the environment.
The wildlife dispersal area of Amboseli National Park, defined as the Amboseli ecosystem, covers an area of about 4,000 km2. This entire area is made up of 6 group ranches where Maasai pastoralists have lived for generations. Tourism in the region is integrated between the park and the group ranches surrounding the park. Kenya Wildlife Service, whose mandate is to protect all wildlife and wild areas in Kenya, is limited in scope to the confines of the designated parks. Therefore, ACC has been building the capacity of the local people to ensure the security and integrity of the wildlife, the wild areas and tourists in the greater Amboseli ecosystem. This has been done through the formation of a community game scout association. Today, 82 scouts equipped with vehicles, radios and field equipment patrol the Amboseli ecosystem to deter poachers, stem conflict and monitor wildlife movements. Linked together and to Kenya Wildlife Service for backup support by radio, the scouts have made quick progress and won wide support.
In addition to the conservation role they play, the scouts minimize human-wildlife conflict in the area and promote community participation in the generation and dissemination of vital environmental information. They have also been trained in collecting ecological data to feed into ACC’s long standing monitoring program.
Tourist lodges are contributing to their running costs and conservation organizations and other donors are providing equipment and supplies. The development of this association has promoted wider stakeholder involvement and collaboration in the management of biodiversity within the greater Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem.
DONORS: EU-BCP, Discovery channel, LCAOF
TYPE OF PROJECT: Capacity Building
KEY CONTACT:
Godfrey MASINDE
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