Community Wildlife Service

Community wildlife service is a strategy recognized by the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act CAP 376. The Act calls for active community participation in wildlife conservation outside protected areas. The increase in human population has lead to increased pressure on predominantly wildlife areas and encroachment onto protected areas. The absence of a land use policy for the country has led to endless sub division of wildlife dispersal areas and wildlife corridors. Since the establishment of CWS department, a lot has been done and achieved in community based wildlife conservation which is not embedded in the current legislation and hence the current challenges facing wildlife conservation and management outside protected areas.

Emerging challenges have called for a more strategic approach to the implementation of the community wildlife programme. These include, increase in human wildlife conflicts, bush meat trade, snaring of wildlife, disappearance of wildlife dispersal areas and corridors, inadequate community benefits and the need to represent a positive image for the organization. Strategies and linkages with key wildlife stakeholders have been identified to deal with these challenges.

Wildlife is mostly viewed as a source of suffering for many Kenyans. There is need to look at wildlife conservation and management from a different perspective in order to understand the value of this important tourism product. The role of wildlife in the economic development of the country needs to be communicated to the people that bear the brunt of hosting wildlife on their land.

Community wildlife conservation is based on the principle that local communities shall participate in and benefit from wildlife conservation. This approach stems from the recognition that protected areas in Kenya as a developing country will survive in so far as they address human concerns and that the future of protected areas that do not have the support of local people is insecure.

KWS has an established network through KWS offices across the country to address issues of wildlife outside the protected area system.

The role of Community Wildlife Service in Kenya Wildlife Service is quite broad. Managing wildlife outside protected areas means that the unit has to interact with: members of parliament, Councilor’s, opinion leaders, rural communities, provincial administration, NGOs, Civil society, private ranchers and other relevant ministries at the grass-root level.

The following are the key functions:-

• Community education awareness creation, mobilization & extension services
• Provide wildlife policy and legislative direction outside protected areas;
• Provide technical advice to the government, local authorities and landowners on the best methods of wildlife conservation and management;
• Rendering services to farming and ranching communities in Kenya necessary for the protection of agriculture and animal husbandry against destruction by wildlife;
• Facilitating wildlife census outside protected areas;
• Planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of community based conservation projects;
• Creating partnerships in wildlife conservation; 
• Establishing mechanisms to reduce human wildlife conflicts
• Cross-border collaboration on wildlife management issues
• Monitoring & evaluation of CWS conservation programmes and community initiatives.
• To protect people and their property from injury or damage caused by wildlife.
• Facilitate wildlife compensation claims

To attain these broad goals, CWS will endeavor to satisfy five major objectives.  This is in recognition of the fact that wildlife represents one of Kenya’s most valuable renewal natural resources, and that KWS will combine the management of wildlife as a resource with concern for its conservation.  The five strategic approaches are:-

• Promote positive human wildlife interaction
• Provide policy direction, guidelines and technical support
• Enlist community support for wildlife conservation
• Strengthen CWS & Community capacity

PAMU In 2006, KWS established a mobile rapid response team (PAMU) which has its base at Nanyuki. This is a highly mobile unit that is dispatched to various areas within the country due to the intensity of human wildlife conflict. Currently the team has the strength of 41 personnel. The team is headed by Warden 1

Human Wildlife Conflict Human wildlife conflict continues to pose a big management challenge to KWS. This is largely due to the increased human population and the lack of a national land use policy. In the current draft wildlife policy and legislation KWS is encouraging community participation and collaboration in managing wildlife resources through devolved structures.

Wildlife Compensation Compensation under the Wildlife and (conservation and Management) (amendment) Act herein after called ‘the Act’ is set out under section 62 which reads:- “Where any person suffers any bodily injury from or is killed by any animal, the person injured or in the case of a deceased person, any other person injured who was dependent upon him at the

 Other Programs Include

• Fence Management