KWCA and the Kenya Wildlife Service co-host the national World Ranger Day event, bringing 40 conservancy rangers from eight regions together with KWS rangers to honour those lost on duty.
Ludovika Malemba, 40 and a mother of four, was one of two women among 60 community rangers at the KWS Law Enforcement Academy, and finished top of the class in academics.
The Deputy President has launched Kenya’s Tourism Blueprint 2030 and National Wildlife Strategy 2030, two linked strategies for a sector supplying 10% of GDP and 11% of formal jobs.
Sixty community rangers are the first to graduate under the revised curriculum KWCA and KWS developed, which adds community engagement to a course long weighted towards wildlife management.
KWCA has petitioned the National Assembly over amendments that would strip communities of their seats in national wildlife governance, contradicting the Wildlife Act’s devolution principles.
KWCA has petitioned the National Assembly to exempt conservation fees charged by wildlife conservancies from the 16% VAT, and to grant conservancies stamp duty relief.
More than 120 conservancy leaders from 28 counties met in Nairobi for the 2018 conservancy leaders conference, marking five years since KWCA was founded and membership growing from 80 to 113.
The Cabinet Secretary has gazetted a taskforce, chaired by Dr John Waithaka, to recommend how Kenya might adopt sustainable wildlife utilisation under the Wildlife Act 2013.
Dickson Kaelo has been appointed to represent conservancies on the committee set up to implement the National Wildlife Migratory Corridors and Dispersal Areas Report.
Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has told KWCA that conservancies complement rather than compete with KWS parks, and pledged a framework for engagement with the conservancy network.
The Daily Nation reports from Eselenkei Conservancy in Amboseli, where lion numbers are rising again as the community turns coexistence with predators into an income.
Delegates from 21 countries met in Nairobi to weigh options for giving rural communities a greater say in CITES decisions, with KWCA representing Kenya’s communities.
