Historical insights for understanding the emergence of community-based conservation in Kenya: international agendas, colonial legacies, and contested worldviews

Kasmira A Cockerill,Shannon M Hagerman

doi:10.5751/es-11409-250215

Abstract

Cockerill, K. A., and S. M. Hagerman. 2020. Historical insights for understanding the emergence of community-based conservation in Kenya: international agendas, colonial legacies, and contested worldviews. Ecology and Society 25(2):15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11409-250215

Highlights

Local and Indigenous communities have rarely been the primary benefactors or leaders of formal conservation (Western and Wright 1994, West et al 2006, Kothari et al 2013, Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) 2016)
This article presents a historical analysis of the governance framework from which Community-based conservation (CBC) arose in the context of wildlife conservation in Kenya, where over 60,000 square kilometers of land falls under CBC
Restricted representation and donor dependence continues to limit community authority in conservation decision making despite increased legal recognition. Despite these and other complexities relating to unreconciled issues of colonialism, elitism, and centralized control, CBC in Kenya continues to increase in conservation importance and total land contributed toward conservation

Summary

Introduction

Local and Indigenous communities have rarely been the primary benefactors or leaders of formal conservation (Western and Wright 1994, West et al 2006, Kothari et al 2013, KWCA 2016). COMMUNITY WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN KENYA CBC can, and often does, addresses multiple aspects of nature and the environment, in the specific context of Kenyan conservation policy, wildlife has always been the central focus. We retain this focus on wildlife here. First and foremost are ecologically focused investigations of species population declines, and proposed solutions to protect charismatic megafauna (primarily carnivores, elephants, and rhino) Research in this vein explores the relationship between wildlife numbers and conservancy establishment, primarily with positive correlations between the two (Ihwagi et al 2015, Blackburn et al 2016, Elliot and Gopalaswamy 2017, Ogutu et al 2017). At the national scale, wildlife counts since 1977 suggest that population numbers in Kenya have decreased on average across major species by 68% between 1977 and 2016 (Ogutu et al 2016). Ogutu et al (2016) attribute the observed declines in part to wildlife legislation that continues to limit the involvement of communities

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