USAID is rolling out a portfolio of programs to expand community-led conservation in biologically important areas, particularly northern Kenya and the greater Maasai Mara ecosystem. In addition, the programs will ramp up on-the-ground efforts to stop illegal wildlife poaching and trafficking.

Grassroots conservation led by local communities is critical, given that 60 percent of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside formal protected areas and reserves. USAID has supported hugely successful efforts by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid north. Elephant poaching dropped 43 percent between 2012 and 2014 across supported conservancy areas.

With a new $20 million, five-year USAID grant, NRT plans to ramp up conservation, anti-poaching and counter-wildlife trafficking initiatives. NRT will partner with Rural Focus, the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, 51 Degrees, Grevy’s Zebra Trust, the African Parks Network, and NRT Trading.

This effort will significantly scale up our existing programs to conserve and manage Kenya’s natural resources.  

Last month, USAID and our partners gathered at NRT Headquarters in Lewa Conservancy, Laikipia to share lessons, and discuss complementing each other’s programs.  The meeting also addressed our resilience efforts, which bring together humanitarian and development partners to build resilience among vulnerable pastoralist communities in northern Kenya. Implementers of the Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth, and AIDS, Population and Health Integrated Assistance, aka APHIAplus IMARISHA, explored potential linkages and partnerships with NRT.

Two new grants to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) will expand the successful community conservancy approach to the Maasai Mara, and improve the national policy framework for conservancies.  TNC will work with the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association and the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association.