Year: 2003
Type: book
Abstract: There are two contrasting perceptions with respect to the coexistence of pastoralism and wildlife in Africa.There are those who claim that pastoralism and wildlife continue to coexist harmoniously, and others who question the sustainability of this coexistence, arguing that increases in human and livestock populations would displace wildlife.The study analyzed the spatio-temporal relation between people, wildlife and livestock in 18 arid and semi-arid districts of Kenya.The result of this study has revealed four broad patterns.The first group of districts of densely populated districts with somewhat moister climatic conditions, livestock and agriculture is rapidly replacing pastoralism as an important economic resource, as indicated in the moderate increase in the ratio of human to livestock biomass (paired t-test; t = 1.91, n = 5, p = 0.13) and decline in wildlife (paired t-test; t = 1.6, p = 0.18).The second group of districts -the arid to very arid districts the trends over the past two decades reveals a further intensification of pastoralism, as expressed by a significant decrease in the ratio of wildlife to livestock in all eight districts (paired t-test; t = -2.19,n = 8, p = 0.06) and rapid decline of wildlife (paired t-test; t = 2.41, n = 8, p = 0.04).The third and fourth group of districts mainly the semi-arid districts with some potential for agriculture (and with low human population density) have continued to attract the emigrant population, and agriculture is increasingly replacing wildlife.The third group mainly consisting of coastal districts of Taita Taveta (contains the Tsavo National Park) and Lamu (Boni and Dodori Game Reserve) have suffered severely from illegal huntingparticularly the hunting of elephant and rhino in the 1970s and 1980sthat decreased the wildlife population drastically.The last group of districts of Narok, Kajiado and Laikipia have both high wildlife and livestock population, but are also facing high emigration and more pressure to convert some of their rangelands into agricultural land.There is no doubt from the results presented in this study that we are at crossroads regarding the coexistence of pastoralism and wildlife in Kenya.
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1519401779