Trade-offs for climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods in wildlife conservancies in the Mara ecosystem, Kenya

Abstract

Pastoralists in the wildlife-rich East African rangelands use diversification into conservation and tourism as a strategy to supplement livestock-based livelihoods and to spread risk. Tourism incomes are an important alternative source during drought, when livestock incomes decline. However, tourism may also reduce access to rangeland resources, and an abundant wildlife may destroy crops and injure, kill or transmit disease to livestock or people. This paper investigates the ability of wildlife conservancies in the Mara, Kenya, to act as an alternative for pastoralists that mitigates risks and maintains resilience in a changing climate. It analyses data to examine how conservancies contribute to and integrate with pastoral livelihoods, and to understand how pastoralists are managing their livestock herds in response to conservancies. It finds conservancy payments can provide an important, reliable, all-year-round source of income and prevent households from selling their animals during stress and for cash needs. Conservancies also retain grass banks during the dry season and provide opportunities for pastoralists to access good-quality forage. However, they reduce access to large areas of former grazing land and impose restrictions on livestock mobility. This affects the ability of pastoralists to remain flexible and able to access seasonally variable resources. Conflicts between grazing and conservancies may also heighten during drought times. Furthermore, income from land leases is not more than the contribution of livestock, meaning conservancy land leases create trade-offs for livestock-based livelihoods. Also, income is based on land ownership, which has inequity implications: women and other marginalised groups are left out.

Keywords: Conservancies; Kenya; Livestock grazing; Livestock trends; Maasai Mara; Pastoral livelihoods.

Figure 1

The Mara area, showing the MMNR, the surrounding group ranches and conservancies. Our study area focused on Koyiaki Group Ranch which is made up of the Mara North, Olare Motorogi and Naboisho Conservancies, and surrounding community areas shown in white

Figure 2

DRSRS 5 × 5 km² sampling units inside and outside conservancies in Koyiaki Group Ranch

Figure 3

Contribution of different livelihood activities to total annual household income (%)

Figure 4

Proportion of gross annual household income from different activities, disaggregated into conservancy members (n = 127) and non-member (n = 121) households

Figure 5

Perception of the importance of different livelihood activities to household welfare - conservancy members only (n = 131)

Figure 6

Monthly calendar of the use of the MMNR and conservancies (Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Mara North Conservancy and Naboisho Conservancy combined) by livestock herders in Koyiaki during 2009 to 2010 (n = 257)

Figure 7

Trends in cattle and shoat populations in the Mara ecosystem from 1977 to 2014

Figure 8

Trends in cattle and shoat density, inside and outside of conservancies, 1977 to 2014, Koyiaki Group Ranch. Figure note: Coral circles and solid lines denote inside conservancies and forest green triangles and dashed trend lines outside conservancies. The dashed blue line indicates when conservancies began to expand in number and size in 2006