Total Economic Value of Maasai Mau, Trans Mara and Eastern Mau ...

The indirect benefits accrue to the off-site population. Tourism is the single majorcontributor to the total economic value of the forest blocks accounting for 67.5%. Indeedtourism cannot be possible without the supply of water from the Mara River. The wateris so critical that wildlife could either migrate or perish without the water. Most of thebenefits from the tourism sector accrue to Kenya (93%).Figure 3: Percent value of water used by different sectors at the Mara River Basin.Kenya and Tanzania share the downstream benefits of conserving the forest blocks.Provision of water to the Mara basin contributes 10.3% of the indirect benefits of theforest. These benefits accrue directly to households through support of their criticallivelihoods of livestock and domestic water supply. The commercial agriculturalistsaccrue 56% of the value of water from the catchment used in the Mara basin. Of all theindirect forest values, Kenya takes about 90% of the total value.45