The African Conservation Fund

"The carnivore community faces an uncertain future due to human activity," explains researcher Paul Schuette, of San Diego State University, as he prepares to embark for Kenya's South Rift Valley at the end of June. Schuette is beginning a study that aims to help conservationists improve carnivore management strategies and reduce conflict as human populations continue to expand.

The effort is being organized by the African Conservation Centre, our Nairobi-based partner, and is taking place on the Shompole and Olkiramatian group ranches, which are located between two large game reserves, the Maasai Mara and Amboseli. This region provides an important migratory route for wildlife passing between the two reserves.

However, current land use practices are subdividing the landscape, hindering natural dispersal of both herbivores and their predators - lions, cheetahs, and wild dogs, among others. Numbers of these species have been declining and many in the conservation community are concerned:

"The key to successful carnivore conservation in East Africa will be to get people together on the ground—scientists, conservationists, pastoralists, government and NGO officials—to create the context for carnivore conservation," said Dr. David Western, director of the African Conservation Centre and board member of African Conservation Fund. "We need to build strong community support [for conservation] and minimize conflict. To do that we must work at the source of the problem - to understand the stakes for both the carnivores and the people." (Photo: African Conservation Centre)

To that end, "we have initiated two conservation-science projects to provide us with that understanding," Western said. One is Paul Schuette's study, and the other is lead by Samantha Russell and Joseph Ole Munge, who are working on the human-wildlife interactions in the region, with the goal to find ways to “win back the spaces” for wildlife. This project is examining the interactions between livestock and wildlife and the effects of limited water resources, disease, and predation upon local populations. This is where we learn the human stakes involved, in the context of the carnivores. Schuette's study will provide the science to understand the cats and smaller carnivores and their needs/stakes in the context of the human pressures.

A third key element links it all together: the continued development of the South Rift Association of Land Owners (SORALO).  This innovative association is now linking some 20 Maasai-owned group ranches in an overarching land management association, many with growing eco-tourism ventures on new private reserves—the “parks beyond parks” that are so critical to conserving the 65% or more of wildlife that live and move outside national parks much of the year.

Through SORALO we will use the information from the two main conservation science studies to win back the spaces for wildlife throughout this remarkable association of communities, the largest private land association linking the Mara with Amboseli.

(Photo courtesy Destination Africa Safaris)

 Correction: In our newsletter, we incorrectly referred to Paul's university as University of California at San Diego; Paul is a research student at San Diego State University.