LifeWeb

Expression of Interest

	Kenya Wildlife Service System Scale Expression of Interest
Country	Kenya
Abstract	This national scale Expression of Interest primarily aims to: 1) secure wildlife migratory corridors and strengthen law enforcement which includes addressing poaching, encroachment and illegal trade problems as well as enhancing problem animal control units; 2) strengthen governance of the wildlife industry including community based wildlife conservation initiatives, sustainable management, policy direction, capacity-building initiatives and infrastructure in parks and reserves; and 3) attain financial sustainability. The financial sustainability of KWS will be addressed through strategies aimed at resource mobilization, diversification of revenue streams and growth as well as effective and efficient management of resources.
Funding Needed	$100,000,000 €81 300 813 USD EUR EUR USD
Time frame	5 years
Benefits
Area Impacted	The amount requested covers existing parks and new wildlife migratory corridors to be secured. Most of the migratory corridors which are outside protected areas are some of the key breeding sites like the Mt. Kenya – Ngare Ndare and Nairobi-Amboseli corridors. Funds are needed for security operations, research and monitoring, translocations, infrastructure and other requirements inside the national parks. Further supports the endowment fund. This covers the entire country of Kenya, with 26 national parks, 10 marine parks and 28 national reserves and community sanctuaries. For a description of Kenya's conservation areas see Annex 1.
Objective	The primary objectives of the project are to: secure wildlife migratory corridors and strengthen law enforcement; improve the governance of the wildlife industry; attain financial sustainability and; maintain ecological integrity.
Scale	National
Scope	Strengthening management of existing protected areas, Improving the enabling environment
Date Submitted	13-Dec-2010

Project description

Wildlife has an intrinsic environmental value, as well as its present and potential revenue generation, contributing 75% of the 10% earnings in GDP from Tourism activities. Kenya’s wildlife is one of the richest and most diversified in Africa, with several of its protected areas and wetlands internationally renowned as World Heritage Sites and RAMSAR sites. Protected areas have long been seen as successful in conservation of wildlife and environmental sustainability. Wildlife covers an area of about 8% of Kenya’s landmass. The major concern in wildlife is the loss of corridors, habitat degradation, security, seasonability of tourism and infrastructure.

Climate Change poses major challenges in the economy, human life and wildlife and on environment thereby affecting Kenya’s social and economic development. While Kenya’s contribution to the Green House Gases (GHGs) is minimal in comparison to developed countries, it is adversely affected by effects of Climate Change. There is need to develop appropriate, detection, prediction, adaption and mitigation measures to reduce the negative impact of the adverse effects.

Kenya has 53 protected areas with 6 marine and the rest are terrestrial parks. The national parks and reserves act as important carbon sinks in the country. The protected areas represent 8% of Kenya’s landmass.

The Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been identified by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the RAMSAR Convention, the Nairobi Convention and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) as key tools in the conservation and management of marine and coastal biodiversity. The MPAs of Kenya harbor coral reefs and associated ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrasses that are among the most biologically diverse and economically important ecosystems in the Earth’s oceans. Taken collectively, these ecosystems support important finfish and shellfish fisheries, play a key role in biodiversity protection, sediment catchment and shoreline protection, and directly or indirectly support coastal tourism which represents an important source of foreign exchange. These marine ecosystems are also particularly vulnerable to overexploitation, and suffer the impacts of destructive exploitation, siltation, pollution, unplanned tourism and urban development, all of which are aggravated by climate change and an ever-increasing human population. Because Kenyan MPAs only cover ~ 8.7% of the coastal shelf area and 3.1% (~ 925 km2) of the total protected area surface in Kenya, they are of crucial importance to the protected area system and were prioritized by the national protected area agency the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) within a network of coastal PA. These MPAs are effectiveness in protecting coral reef biodiversity as evidenced by significantly higher diversity, abundance and biomass of coral reef fish, coral species diversity and cover and lower densities of sea urchins within MPAs than reefs outside the MPAs as well as endemic species of fish and coral.

Additional important attributes that have not been evaluated include carbon sequestration by coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds, the potential for medicinal products and the recreational and aesthetic value of these areas. Although no country-wide geographical prioritization of biodiversity has been carried out in Kenya, the high dependence of coastal communities on marine resources, the importance of MPAs for tourism (the mainstay of the Kenyan economy), fisheries and biodiversity and other ecosystem services, and the serious threat of climate change on coral reefs and associated ecosystems increase the urgency for strengthening the management of Kenyan MPAs. The effect of climate change were particularly manifested during the 1998 El Niño Southern Oscillation bleaching event that caused widespread hard coral mortality across the WIO region. << Read less

Objectives and Results

The primary objectives of the project are to: secure wildlife migratory corridors and strengthen law enforcement; improve the governance of the wildlife industry; attain financial sustainability and; maintain ecological integrity. Objective1.1 Secure wildlife migratory corridors and Strengthen Law… Read more >>

Objective	1.1 Secure wildlife migratory corridors and Strengthen Law Enforcement(patrols, Intelligence etc)
Result	- Securing wildlife corridors and dispersal areas is critical to the survival of wildlife in Kenya. The corridors have been identified and mapped. KWS requires support to develop and inventory, then procure and or lease and engage communities for wildlife conservation. - The Poaching and encroachment of wildlife in protected areas has been a major problem. Require support to enhance security to visitors, wildlife and park boundaries. - Combat illegal trade in wildlife species and their products. - Procure equipment support the operation teams in the 52 protected areas. - Enhance problem animal control units to quickly respond to human wildlife conflict challenges.
Funding needed

Objective	1.2 Wildlife Industry Governance
Result	- Support conservation, management and maintenance of national parks, reserves and sanctuaries. - Support developing policy direction, guidelines and technical support for wildlife management outside National Parks, Reserves and Sanctuaries; - Ensure sustainable management of critical habitats outside National Parks, Reserves and Sanctuaries; - Enlist community support for wildlife conservation through provision of incentives; - Promote the establishment and the maintenance of wildlife corridors and dispersal areas and biodiversity hot spots to ensure continuity of viable ecosystems and Capacity building for natural resource management. - Conservation education and extension services to engage and inform the public, schools and communities. - Capacity building for development of management plans. - Facilitation of community wildlife-community based wildlife conservation initiatives. - Infrastructure in parks and reserves
Funding needed

Objective	1.3 Attain financial sustainability
Result	KWS Financial sustainability will be addressed through strategies aimed at resource mobilization, diversification of revenue streams and growth as well as effective and efficient management of resources. There is need for support to: - Capitalise the Kenya Wildlife Service Fund to attain the target of US$ 100 million to support wildlife conservation in Kenya. - International marketing of parks and reserves. - Enhancing public private sector partnership in developing facilities in the protected areas. - Support the devolution of financial management into the 8 conservation areas.
Funding needed

Objective	1.4 Maintain Ecological Integrity
Result	- Ecological integrity is a key pillar in wildlife management. On continuous basis, all efforts must be directed at healthy wildlife habit and ecosystems. - There is a need for proper inventories of endangered species as well as cropping of other wildlife populations to ensure optimal levels are maintained. - Equally through research and monitoring, KWS will manage to determine threatened Eco-systems and suggest remedial measures including propositions for securing additional conservation areas. - Support for different management tools including translocation as an option for degraded habitats. - Maintaining viable and sustainable barriers as well as encouraging income-generating activities in areas of intense human-elephant conflicts. - Climate change which is augmenting drought in much of our country and floods in other areas.
Funding needed

<< Read less

Ecological contribution

Priority Ecosystems and Species Kenya is rich in biological diversity. Around 25,000 species of animal and 7000 species of plants have so far been recorded, along with atleast 2000 fungi and bacteria. An enormous species of plants and animals inhabit the country’s varied habitats, from its crowded a… Read more >>

Project benefits

Climate Change Adaptation

Income Generation

Synergies with the Programme of Work on Protected Areas

Goal 1.1: To establish and strengthen national and regional systems of protected areas integrated into a global network as a contribution to globally agreed goalsGoal 1.3: To establish and strengthen regional networks, transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) and collaboration between neighbouring prot… Read more >>