Successful conservation – what does it take? - The importance of community-based conservation.
Our planet is getting hotter and we’re treading in hot water, but climate change is far from being the only issue we’re facing – with a growing population and rapid development, biodiversity conservation and sustainability need to be at the forefront of our global agenda.
African bush elephants monitored by Save The Elephants (STE) enjoying lush savanna grassland in Buffalo Springs National Reserve Kenya. Founded by Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, STE is a world-leading elephant research & conservation organisation. Elephant populations are being decimated for ivory poaching (up to 33'000 each year - WildAid) but are also under intense pressure from habitat loss and conflict with local populations (WWF, Save The Elephants).
Sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunities, education, healthcare, community empowerment and a healthy biodiversity – we know how critically important each is but too often fail to realize that they are intimately tied to one another and essential for conservation. Together they spell out conservation and flourishing communities. To ensure long-term success, conservation projects need to appreciate this and reflect in their strategy the highly multi-disciplinary nature of the conservation problematic.
Maasai pastoralists in the Kenyan South Rift Valley (Shompole/Olkiramatian Community Conservation Area) where the Lale’enok Resource Center is embedded in the local community. Lale'Enok is a community based conservation initiative by SORALO (South Rift Association of Landowners) and the African Conservation Center.
A critical issue is the link between poverty and conservation. Communities in developing areas often resort to unsustainable livelihoods to make ends meet, such as overgrazing in Kenyan rangelands, jeopardizing their future and creating conflicts with wildlife. My goal is to build strong community oriented conservation agendas by integrating sustainable livelihoods in conservation initiatives, promoting human-wildlife coexistence and the well-being of communities in the process to ensure success. From March until June this year, I worked with the Lale’enok Resource Center and Save The Elephants in Kenya, two organizations at the forefront of conservation and community development, and obtained a thorough field experience in the process. My overall experience with these projects, witnessing their important strides in conservation, and in promoting the well-being of the communities involved, has reaffirmed my desire to be a leading actor in community-based conservation.
Livestock competing with Plains zebras for remaining water and pasture during the dry season in the Kenyan South Rift Valley – (Shompole/Olkiramatian Community Conservation Area)
The Lale’enok resource center, through the Rebuilding the Pride project employs Maasai pastoralists to assess lion presence, collecting information vital to the well-being of their herds and promoting human-wildlife coexistence in the process through conflict avoidance. Lions have drastically declined throughout the continent, from an estimated 450, 000 in the 1940s to as few as 20, 000 animals today (Big Cats Initiative, National Geographic Society)
Conclusion
Human pressures on the environment and biodiversity have reached a critical point, posing serious threats to the planet’s biodiversity, life supporting mechanisms and ultimately our future. How we act now will have tremendous ramifications for our well-being and the planet. Through this blog post, my goal is to raise awareness of this important issue, and to create an uplifting conservation message, showing that conservation programs like the Lale’enok Resource Center and Save The elephants have made significant strides in conservation and community-development. The integration of both is essential to their success success, for any lasting solutions to the conservation problem will require the full support of local communities.
