Enabling Ecological Connectivity
Approximately 70 percent of Kenya’s wildlife species are found outside protected parks and reserves. Therefore, while protected areas play a central role in conservation, dispersal areas and migration pathways contribute greatly to wildlife and the overall biological diversity of these protected areas.
Seasonal wildlife dispersal and migration is a crucial feature of the dynamics of the Amboseli Ecosystem.
In the dry season, many large mammal species retreat to the permanent swamps and wetlands in the Amboseli National Park at the core of the ecosystem.
In the wet season, the wildlife disperses throughout the greater ecosystem or to neighbouring ecosystems, along well-defined migration corridors.
ALOCA’s Connectivity Conservation programme is advancing open rangelands to restore the ecological connectivity between protected parks, conservancies and community lands. The programme has three core focus areas as outlined below.
1. Restoring Connectivity
Enabling landowners at the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro to consolidate their individual parcels of lands to form conservancies—currently, ALOCA member conservancies cover 12,955 hectares.
This is helping prevent isolated protected areas by restoring and enhancing ecological connectivity across intact and fragmented habitats in the ecosystem by creating a vast and uninterrupted habitat that can support wildlife movement.
2. Land Leasing and Management
Developing long-term land lease models that ensure there is adequate space for conservation efforts and the socioeconomic aspirations of the local communities.
This balance promotes buy-in from the landowners as they can clearly see the link between conservation and regular revenue for the community.
3. Rangeland Restoration
Integrating grazing and rangeland restoration management plans to avert overgrazing, and support biodiversity conservation and rangelands restoration.
This is helping provide an ample food base in the Amboseli ecosystem: an important biosphere for wildlife as well as the Maasai pastoral community and their livestock herds.
