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LAIKIPIA
An Exceptional Conservation Success Story
By: Dr. Lawrence Frank

Conservationists have long been alarmed about the rapid declines in African elephants, rhinos, and gorillas. Yet plummeting populations of other wildlife have gone almost unnoticed. Under the pressure from human and livestock populations, wildlife outside, Kenya’s national parks is disappearing quickly. The great predators - lions, hyenas, cheetah, and wild dogs - are particularly threatened, for they kill livestock and no stockman will tolerate that, whether he is a traditional pastoralist or a commercial rancher. There are probably fewer than 25,000 wild lions in Africa, and most of those are in protected areas. It took Europeans millennia to eradicate that continent’s lions, bears, and wolves, a couple of centuries to clear eastern North America, and a few decades to wipe out wolves and grizzlies in the American West. Africa is the last stronghold of large terrestrial mammal abundance and diversity. People can still visit most national parks in eastern and southern Africa to see lions and other predators, as well as the herds of antelope they feed upon. But drive to the edge of most protected areas, and the landscape changes abruptly, either to farmland that supports multitudes of humans, or barren rangeland overgrazed by cattle, goats and sheep. Predators that leave the safety of the parks rarely last long before they are shot, poisoned, or caught in poachers snares.

Lying just north of Mount Kenya National Park and southwest of Samburu Nation Reserve, Laikipia District is a vital area for wildlife conservation. Unlike most of eastern Africa, wildlife populations are actually increasing here - thanks to a strongly pro-conservation human population whose economy combines livestock production with ecotourism.

Like much of Africa, this is a semiarid bush country. Most of it is too dry for agriculture, so only livestock production and tourism are viable economic pursuits. Herds of cattle, goats, and camels forage among elephants, zebras, giraffes, and antelope. All are prey for lions, leopards, cheetah, hyenas, and wild dogs.

Thirty years ago, there were no elephants, few ungulates and predators were shot on sight in Laikipia. Wildlife has rebounded because people recognize that tourism and conservation can provide a better livelihood than livestock alone. This makes Laikipia a “laboratory” in which to learn how humans and livestock can live in some sort of coexistence with African predators.

At 2.3 million acres, Laikipia is a microcosm of typical land-use in semiarid Africa - a mix of pastorialism, commercial ranchings, and increasing ecotourism. Land is not formally protected, but most landowners, both traditional Masai and commercial ranchers, are committed to conserving the ecosystem while developing a sustainable rural economy. The Laikipia Wildlife Forum, a remarkably democratic grassroots organization, is devoted to improving the livelihood of the people through conservation.

Many commercial ranches are turning to ecotourism and helping their pastoralist neighbors start lodges, campsites, and camel or hiking safaris. The Masai are eager to develop alternatives to their tough subsistence herding. Although range conditions and wildlife numbers are good on the commercial ranches, the overgrazed communal lands support little wildlife. The Forum employs local community liaison officers (CLOs) to assist their communities in encouraging wildlife and developing conservation-based enterprises. As loss of livestock to predators is the single most important wildlife problem, the CLOs receive significant Wildlife Conservation Society financial and technical support through the Laikipia Predator and Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog projects.

The semiarid ecosystem of northern Kenya extends into Uganda, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. This huge region was once rich in wildlife, but overgrazing, poisons, and the ubiquitous AK-47 have all but eliminated large mammals. On the southern boundary, Laikipia stands out as the exception - an example of what conservation can do for people, and a most important potential source of wildlife to repopulate the vast north if human pressures can be brought under control.

For more information go to www.wcs.org