NEW WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY TO BE DEVELOPED IN KENYA
(Posted 12th June 2017)
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, Prof. Judi Wakhungu, will in the morning launch the formulation of Kenya’s National Wildlife Conservation and Management Strategy at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
The launch of the process of formulating the Wildlife Conservation is in line with the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013 that requires the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Wildlife to develop the strategy. It also provides a coordinated framework for national Wildlife Conservation.
The strategy is intended to provide guidance to the country against the backdrop of wildlife protection; conservation, management and sustainable utilization taking into account the three land regimes – public, community and private lands. In specific, the strategy will:
- Set national targets and indicators for viable and sustainable wildlife and habitat conservation over the coming decades:
- Secure wildlife habitats, dispersal areas and corridors and promote evidence-based integrated planning to enhance wildlife conservation across terrestrial, fresh-water and marine environments;
- Stop poaching and illegal wildlife trade, and strengthen the inter-agency collaboration in the Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) in dealing with illegal wildlife trade;
- Address strategies to avoid and mitigate Human Wildlife Conflict
- Establish and implement national long-term wildlife conservation and management funding and monitoring and reporting systems; and
- Strengthen cooperative management of wildlife resources by the national and County Governments, communities, individual landowners and other stakeholders.
The Strategy formulation process is being spearheaded and coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources with financial support from The United States Agency for International Development though a cooperative agreement signed between the U.S. Department of Interior and The African Conservation Centre for technical and financial cooperation. This process will build on past and present policies, practices, regulations, amendments, and strategies to ensure coherence. The Strategy shall be reviewed every five (5) years.
This process now going underway seeks to align wildlife management to Kenya’s attainment of Vision 2030 development blueprint and lays down strategic interventions for implementation of the Wildlife policy and related legal frameworks
