State urged to promote community-based wildlife conservation plan

By Fredrick Obura

The Government has been urged to promote community-based wildlife conservation parks.

Players in the sector say the current concentration of tourism activities in national parks and game reserves is over-stretching them.

"The value of our parks is diminishing. There are a lot of activities around these areas and it affects natural life in these parks," said Kahindi Lekalhaile, the Chief Executive Officer of Ecotourism Kenya.

In places like Masai Mara, for instance, animals like cheetah, lion and leopards don’t hunt like they used to do before due to huge traffic in the park.

"We need to re-think our plans and focus on strategies offering value addition to the parks," he said.

According to Mr Lekalhaile, Government agencies like the Kenya Tourism Board need to come up with more community conservancy zones to decongest the wildlife reservation areas.

"The move would help ease traffic in natural parks and also help in opening marginalised parts of the country," he said.

He urged the agencies to consider marketing conservancies aggressively as an alternative to traditional parks for sustainable tourism.

Wildlife Destination

"There is potential in community conservancies, many visitors have developed interest and we need to shift focus into these areas."

He called on tourism agencies to change from only marketing Kenya as a wildlife destination. "Our agencies need to change their style of marketing and highlight other products on offer to open up the country for a wide range of visitors."

The sector continues to be the backbone of Kenya’s economy. Recently, the Government announced growth in tourists numbers 15.1 per cent to 313,691 in the three months to March, up form 27, 424 in the first quarter of last year.

Tourism minister Najib Balala attributed the growth to the economic recovery of Kenya’s traditional tourist source markets.

The ministry expects the industry to maintain the growth momentum throughout the year, with arrivals for the entire year projected to be at least 15 per cent more than the 1.1 million recorded last year.

Meanwhile, tourism investors are being pushed by the circumstances to expand tourism facilities to other under-explored regions like the Lake Elementaita, a place known for its hot-springs, a popular resort that remains under-explored in Kenya’s Rift Valley.