KWS passes out 300 more community game rangers

KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE PASSES OUT 300 MORE RANGERS

The Tsavo based KWS Manyani training college was the venue for passing out over 300 community game rangers last weekend, who were given intensive training for several months to supplement and assist KWS personnel in combating poaching and keeping rogue animals at bay. The new batch of rangers were specifically trained in paramilitary procedures to be able to serve alongside regular KWS units and security forces during anti poaching operations but notably also received training in the management of ecosystems and lessons in ecology.
Sections of Tsavo East and Tsavo West had in the recent past seen some increased human wildlife conflict when drought conditions saw herds of elephant leave the national park in search of water and pastures as they did for centuries prior, only to find ever more human settlements in their way, causing destruction of property, loss of crops and loss of life even, a sign of failed planning for such eventualities before permitting settlements in areas which are in any case only border line productive for agriculture. KWS in fact over the past months had been involved in several large scale operations to drive elephant back into the parks after they had broken out and are now in the process of installing electric fences and creating ditches along the most common sections of the park where wildlife have in the past broken out.
A statement released by KWS also stated that: this programme is to develop the capacity of communities and private land-owners to establish and manage economically viable and sustainable nature-based enterprises within targeted landscapes of Kenya.
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