Conservation and Management Strategy for the Elephant in Kenya

xix CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ELEPHANT IN KENYA
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS BY CHAIR,
IUCN SSC AFRICAN ELEPHANT SPECIALIST GROUP
In the field of elephant conservation and management, there is a growing need to be strategic, setting ambitious
goals with realistic targets and measurable milestones from which to gauge our progress in dealing with the rapidly
increasing threats and challenges we face.
In meeting these challenges, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has developed this Conservation and
Management Strategy for the Elephant in Kenya. This Strategy has been a long time in the making; it is the
result of hard work by countless individuals and extensive consultations with local communities as well as a
host of interested stakeholders in the international conservation community. Importantly, however, it serves to
demonstrate the country’s deep and indefatigable commitment to the nation’s elephants. Kenya is a country whose
elephant populations have suffered tremendous losses but also made remarkable recoveries and successes.
This new Strategy is a statement of the country’s continuing efforts to secure a safe and lasting future for this
widely-celebrated national treasure in an atmosphere of growing threats and ever-more challenging circumstances;
most notably the growth of human populations and the concomitant loss of habitat as more and more land is
converted to human-dominated landscapes.
For many years Kenya’s approach to elephant conservation has been guided by the KWS 1991-1996 Policy
Framework and Development Programme (Anon, 1991), more commonly known as the ‘Zebra Books’. A long-lived,
landmark policy process, the Zebra Books provided Kenya’s primary policy guidance for almost two decades.
Although elephants had always been considered a valuable and charismatic contributor to Kenya’s impressive
biological diversity, these documents gave prominence to the conservation of elephants for Kenya as a nation and
positioned elephants as an unparalleled national asset.
Many important initiatives grew from the KWS Policy Framework and some had important impacts on the
conservation of Kenya’s elephants. One noteworthy example, which actually set a precedent for other African
elephant range states, was the creation of the position of the Elephant Programme Coordinator. This post, held by
Dr. Joyce Poole (1991-94), Dr. John Waithaka (1994-1997), Mr. Patrick Omondi (1997-2006) and most recently,
Mr. Moses Litoroh (2006-2010), has been afforded prominence by KWS, and has most definitely enhanced Kenya’s
ability to pursue a constant and coordinated approach to applied research in support of management action for
elephant populations across the country. This approach also allowed Kenya, very early on, to begin grappling with
the thorny issue of managing human-elephant conflict and the location-specific challenges it poses to the future for
the co-existence of humans and elephants across the country.
The Zebra Books also helped to focus Kenya’s attention on the issue of poaching and illegal trade in ivory. From this
standpoint, Kenya’s strong and unwavering policy stance has provided them the impetus to become an outspoken
voice for elephants, most notably within CITES; this role now widely recognized not just by their fellow range states
in Africa but by the entire international conservation community. This, and Kenya’s deep engagement of the
non-governmental community, the donor community and the international public in furthering their elephant
conservation goals, has made them an acknowledged champion for elephant-friendly policy and action.