In 2016 KWCA published the first comprehensive national map of Kenya’s wildlife conservancies. It documented 119 of the roughly 160 conservancies then in existence — 55% on community land, 30% on private land and 15% group ranches — and grouped them into the regional divisions KWCA still works through today. The spatial data for around 40 further conservancies could not be included, because boundaries were still under negotiation or had never been mapped at all.
That first map was, in KWCA’s own words, “the result of a herculean task of collating, geo referencing and interpretation of data from a myriad of sources and map formats”. It drew on data held by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), WWF and the regional associations — among them Northern Rangelands Trust, South Rift Association of Landowners, Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, Laikipia Wildlife Forum and Amboseli Ecosystem Trust.
It was an important step in documenting how conservancies had evolved, and in building the case for conservancies as a mechanism for conserving biodiversity alongside sustainable community development. The interactive map below is the current expression of that work.
Conservancy mapping is a living exercise, not a finished cadastre. A few things worth knowing before you reuse anything you find here:
If you need an authoritative extract, a specific attribute table, or written permission to reuse a layer, contact the KWCA secretariat.
