Government Should Pay for Wildlife Fences

This year, the Rhino Charge raised a record sh 59 million for the Aberdare fence project. But I am perturbed that securing Kenya’s most crucial water tower has been left to NGOs, private institutions and individuals of goodwill while the government plays a peripheral, almost negligent role.

But sample this: In the recently released economic survey for 2005-06, tourism, most of it wildlife-based, registered, at 13%, the highest growth among all sectors of the Kenyan economy and generated a whooping sh 53 billion for the exchequer.

Still, National Parks provide intrinsic ecological values and indirect economic benefits some of which cannot even be quantified.

Can there be more valid reasons why KWS and farmers shouldn’t be left to grapple with wildlife related conflicts on their own without more robust intervention from the government?

If the truth be told, leaving the Aberdare National Park Fence and other similar initiatives to NGOs and poor community groups is a serious dereliction of duty by the government.

Wildlife-proof fences enforce land zonation by separating human settlements from wildlife, thereby protecting human life and public property. The last time I checked, protecting human life and public property was a function of the security arms of government!

In my view, the government should therefore develop and adapt a national human-wildlife conflict resolution strategy, funded, just like other national security related expenses, by Treasury through the annual budget.

This would include taking up the remaining costs of the Aberdare fence and providing funding for similar initiatives in Tsavo, Laikipia, Narok, Arabuko Sokoke and other human-wildlife conflict hot spots. Merely instructing game rangers to shoot in the air or drive animals (wherever to?) will not do.

Lest we forget, a wildlife fence is, at least to people in wildlife-dense areas, as crucial as a Police Post. It not only secures their economic livelihoods but also, in many cases, determines whether they, like wildlife, should live or die.

(The views expressed here are for the writer and not for Kenya Wildlife Service)