Kenya Wildlife Service signs MOU with Marula Estates

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Mr Francescco Natta, the Marula Estates managing director(left) and KWS Director, Mr Julius Kipng’etich after signing the MOU at a brief ceremony in KWS headquarters in Nairobi.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has on  Tuesday, December 6, 2011 signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with the Marula Estates, a landowner in Naivasha.  Areas identified for collaboration include wildlife scientific research, capacity building of staff, improvement and setting up of wildlife orphanages and sanctuaries and exchange of research finding and publications. Other areas include resource mobilisation through adventure tourism, wildlife breeding in semi-captivity conditions for re-introduction  of common and threatened species.

The MOU has provisions for environment conservation  through establishment of wildlife corridors, rehabilitation of wetlands, payment for ecosystem services and similar initiatives.   Mr Francescco Natta, the Marula Estates managing director, and KWS Director, Mr Julius Kipng’etich, signed the MOU at a brief ceremony in KWS headquarters in Nairobi.  Marula will help KWS in mobilising resources within and without Europe for the establishment of additional orphanages and sanctuaries while KWS will assist Marula and other stakeholders in re-establishing the old Naivasha North Lake swamp by creating awareness, among all the stakeholders. Marula staff will also be trained at the Naivasha-based Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute, Manyani Field Training School and any other appropriate institutions chosen by KWS.

Speaking during the ceremony, Mr Kipng’etich blamed population growth along trade routes for the  encroachment on wetlands. He said Marula had set the pace and would act as the nucleas for bringing other conservation stakeholders on board. “This MOU will create an excellent mix of agriculture and wildlife as well as ways of managing invasive species,” he said.