Annual Report 2008 - African Wildlife Foundation

A New Lease on Land
Heartland/locale: Kilimanjaro/Wildlife
dispersal area connecting Amboseli and
Tsavo West National Parks in Kenya
The wildlife of Amboseli National Park relies
on dispersal areas that reach into community
lands that stretch from the park’s borders, to
the Chyulu Hills, and into Tsavo West National
Park.
Increasingly, however, elephants, lions,
cheetahs, and other wildlife are encountering
fences and other barriers where there were once
open lands as they move through the region.
That is because communities faced with few
other economic options have resorted to farming
subdivided plots or selling land off to private
speculators and commercial developers eager to
build tourism facilities. In some areas, wildlife
populations, unable to reach vital food or watering
spots, have shrunk or disappeared altogether.
Human-wildlife confl ict is also on the rise.
AWF is partnering with the people living in
this critical corridor to design an economically
based conservation solution: AWF will pay communities
an annual fee for every acre they set
aside through a conservation lease. Under the
terms of the lease, landowners agree to manage
the lands as one unit and to protect the area
from poaching, further subdivision, mining development
and other commercial activities that
endanger wildlife and its habitat.
“In 2008, AWF secured 7,000 acres from
125 landowners through this innovative leasing
arrangement and set the stage for thousands
more to be brought under conservation management
next year,” says Kathleen Fitzgerald, Director
of Land Conservation. “That’s an enormous
step forward in safeguarding a corridor that is
critical to the entire Amboseli ecosystem.”
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