Tourism and African Development by Isaac Sindiga

Author:Isaac Sindiga [Sindiga, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138365278
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Amboseli National Park, Kenya: A case study of wildlife-human conflict

Below, I present the case of Amboseli national park to illustrate the conflicts between wildlife conservation and local people. The case provides lessons not only on conflict resolution in conservation but also the necessity of local support for successful tourismled conservation. The literature on Amboseli is extensive (Western, 1982a; 1982b; Smith, 1995; Talbot and Olindo, 1990). What follows is a highly summarized description to pinpoint the salient aspects of the Amboseli case.

Amboseli National Park, which measures 392 square kilometres, was established in 1974. It is located in the eastern Maasai district of Kajiado. Its history goes back to the 1909 game ordinance by which the entire Kenya Maasailand was declared a wildlife protection area known as Southern Game Reserve. On the 27,700 sq. km. of land, the Maasai were allowed to co-exist with wildlife. The purpose for the reserve was to stop the killing of elephants for ivory. Nevertheless, the new measure allowed the Maasai to live with the impressive diversity of wildlife as they had done for a long time. After all, the European view of the time was that the Maasai were themselves part of the wildlife scene (Knowles and Collett, 1989; Saitoti, 1978; Western 1982a; 1982b). Eliot (1966/1905: 143) appeared to emphasize this "wild" nature of the Maasai opposed to the "cultured" or "civilized" man when he described them as resembling the lion and the leopard.

In 1948 Amboseli was created as a national reserve measuring 3660 square km. Within its boundaries was Ol Tukai swamp which had always been invaluable to the Maasai and their livestock especially for dry season grazing. The decade of the 1950s was particularly good with plenty of grass and Maasai livestock multiplied quite rapidly. Wildlife in the national reserve increased as well. This attracted more tourists whose numbers increased from a few hundred a year to over 15,000 in 1960 (Western, 1982b).

The Kenya National Parks handed over Amboseli to Olkejuado County Council in 1961. The local authority managed the reserve; however, after a few years there was open evidence of severe resource destruction because of the pressure of wildlife and cattle. The Maasai insisted on utilizing the O1 Tukai swamp, which are fed by fresh water streams from Mount Kilimanjaro, for watering and grazing their livestock. They could not reconcile themselves to the idea of the reserve resources being used exclusively by wildlife. To ventilate their anger against wildlife and tourism, the Maasai began to kill rhinos and other wildlife (Talbot and Olindo, 1990). Some 30 rhinos were killed in 5 years and in nearly all the cases, the horns were not removed, suggesting that it was not the work of commercial poachers (Western, 1982b).

These problems came to a head and the government stood to lose about K£ 2.5 million which Amboseli generated annually from tourism by the late 1960s. In 1968, the government commissioned a study which proposed that 600 sq. km become a park with authority over it vested in Olkejuado County Council (Talbot and Olindo, 1990).

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