Maranrm planning |
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Mara |
the problem Kenya's Masai Mara is part of the world-famous Serengeti-Mara transboundary ecosystem - one of the last places on earth to support a large-scale wildlife migration. Each year, over a million wildebeest, zebras and their attendant predators move across the plains in an endless cycle that has gone on for millennia. The Mara is also the traditional homeland of Masai pastoralists and a mainstay of Kenya's tourism economy. In recent years, parts of the highly productive Mara grasslands have been used for large-scale agriculture and subsistence cultivation. Such changes have caused major conflict between competing land-uses, such that pastoralists and wildlife have been displaced from a large part of their former range. As a result, Masai livelihoods have been increasingly threatened, and numbers of resident wildlife have dropped dramatically. the solution The
project aims to improve wildlife conservation and community livelihoods by
empowering local communities to manage natural resources according to objectives
agreed between all the key interest groups, and by increasing the benefits from
tourism to
local people. The project targets two community owned areas still largely
unaffected by large-scale agriculture. Strengthened land management was achieved through a participatory
land-use planning process which was led by local institutions, and involved
grassroots community members, local leaders and other interest groups. The
output of the planning process is a natural resources management plan that aims
to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem integrity while optimising benefits
from different land-use options. The plan is now being actively
used to guide decision making and mitigate conflicts between competing land
uses. CDC’s contribution CDC was responsible for the project design and for providing technical support for implementation, including:
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fact file
main project theme: natural resources management planning Synopsis: Community-owned lands surrounding Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve are a vital part of the world-famous Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. However large areas of the plains have been converted to agricultural use and wildlife populations have plummeted. This project has empowered local communities to manage and benefit from wildlife through a participatory land use planning process, thereby aligning the interests of communities and conservationists in these areas. Customers/Partners:
Other collaborators:
Donor:
Location: Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, southern Kenya Timeframe: July 1999-December 2000
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