My name is Eric Ole Kesoi, Lion Guardians Co-ordinator.
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With negotiations underway between the Maasai and KWS, Amboseli has reverted back to its normal calm.
Peace and order has returned to the Amboseli ecosystem after a series of meetings held between the communities surrounding Amboseli National Park and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The meetings were attended by thousands of community members as well as by top government officials. In the most recent meeting which was held on the 27th of August, the anger and emotions witnessed in the two previous meetings were replaced with the order and respect for which the Maasai community is well known. The main agenda item of the meetings has been to discuss a way to fairly distribute the revenue generated by Amboseli National Park to the communities living in the areas surrounding the park, who are experiencing high rates of human-wildlife conflict and are incurring significant costs (both monetary and life) as a result. This has been and still is a very contentious issue and is at the root of most of the retaliatory and political killings of wildlife that have occurred in the area.
To present a unified front, the community leaders all met ahead of the meetings to put together a unified list of grievances and demands that was presented to KWS. Severalof these issues can be addressed directly by KWS, but there are also many that are dependent upon the enactment of the 2011Wildlife Bill, which has yet to be passed in parliament and upon legal interpretations of the recently introduced new constitution. So finding a solution that will be satisfactory to all parties will be an on going process – but the good news is that a productive discussion has been started and is proceeding forward.
A crucial element of the meeting is that the communities have all agreed that they will no longer take their frustrations out on the innocent animals and will instead focus on directing their energies towards advocating for a fair allocation of revenue sharing through further discussions with KWS and through the legal and judicial systems. The group ranch leaders have informed all of their members that the killing of wildlife is unacceptable and will not be tolerated and they also invited all of the conservation organizations working in the ecosystem to resume their operations.
We are greatly relieved by this news and our Lion Guardians have now resumed their daily duties.
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That is very positive news.
Let’s pray that peace will remain in Amboseli between the wildlife and the communities.
Let’s hope for the best. Even if I understand the big disappointment of the Maasai community, all together (authorities, leaders, warriors, Lion Guardians…) need to talk and find solutions to give enough place for wildlife.
Waiting for your next news. Thanks a lot.