Kajiado County's Ecosystem

 

Urbanisation and development continues to put Kajiado's ecosystem in distress. 

The Kajiado County's Ecosystem – where all living organisms interact with each other and their environment – has experienced some dramatic changes since the late 19th century. The accounts of early writers paint a picture of a spectacular ecosystem teeming with diverse resident and migratory wildlife. Records describe abundant wildebeest that migrated seasonally with other wildlife species, livestock and pastoralists.

Today this is no longer the case. Studies show that the area has experienced major land use and tenure changes. This urbanisation and development has put the ecosystem in distress. It has fragmented the landscape which has reduced the ability of animals to migrate as they used to. The result is that their numbers have plummeted.

Wildlife populations continue to decline severely in many protected areas and unprotected pastoral areas of Africa. Rapid large-scale land use changes, poaching, climate change, rising population pressures, governance, policy, economic and socio-cultural transformations and competition with livestock all contribute to the declines in abundance.

The population dynamics of 15 wildlife species monitored using aerial surveys from 1977 to 2019 within Kajiado County of Kenya, with a rapidly expanding human population, settlements, cultivation and sustainable and participatory developments show a major decline of wildlife.

The abundance of the 14 most common wildlife species declined by 67 percent between 1977 and 2019in both Eastern (Amboseli Ecosystem), Northern, Central and Western Kajiado. The distribution of wildlife contracted dramatically during 1977–2019, most especially for wildebeest, giraffe and impala. Only zebra and ostrich distributions expanded in the county. However, livestock distribution expanded to densely cover most of the county.

Scientists blame the decline on recurrent droughts, intensifying human population pressures, land use changes and anthropogenic impacts.

Kikao Eco-Wild Conservation Initiative is a revolutionary idea that was born from passion, loyalty, and persistence to face environmental and wildlife habitats restoration challenges within Kajiado County. K.E.W.C.I is not just a means to facilitate the sensitization of the Wildlife Habitat restoration, but a hunger to strive for solutions, to resolve escalating human wildlife conflict, to encourage the contribution of communities and inspire change.

Kikao Eco-Wild Conservation Initiative observed that wildlife populations on the pastoral lands of Kenya is now critically depended on the good will and support of all the stake holders, governments and local communities to ensure wildlife and natural wild habitats thrive in modern Africa.

These initiatives, and others like them, are laudable. But they are unlikely to be sustainable in the long-term. This is because they are disjointed, underfunded or too spatially constrained to save the few remaining critical parts of the ecosystem that still support wildlife and livestock.

The future of these unique continental natural resources is directly tied to decisions Africans are currently making. Kikao Eco-Wild Conservation Initiative is working ttowards developing a multi-faceted approach that ensures conservation strategies work for both wildlife and people.