A major cause of resentment between the community
and MMNR management is the inability to access
natural resources in the Reserve, especially in
times of hardship, such as drought. Resources that the
community
would wish to have access to include water,
grazing and saltlicks for their livestock, and supplies of
medicinal
or culturally important plants (some of which are
now only found within the MMNR). While
unlimited
access to such resources is highly undesirable
from an environmental and tourism product
standpoint,
and allowing such access would undermine the
status of the MMNR as a protected area held in trust for
the
wider Maasai community and all Kenyans, restricted
and regulated access to certain key resources can
fulfil
periodic and compelling community livelihood needs
and as a result, has the significant potential to
increase
community support for the Reserve. In addition, if
properly regulated and managed, access to resources
can
be provided without undermining the area’s
conservation and tourism product.
Some community resource access is already formally
permitted in the CCTM section of the Reserve,
where
livestock owners have been allowed controlled
access to a salt lick, and other precedents exist for
controlled
community access to natural resources within a
protected area, such as at Amboseli National Park,
where
communities are allowed controlled access to water
points for their livestock at certain times of day and
year.
Under this action, MMNR management will therefore
develop explicit guidelines to enable carefully
controlled
community access to key MMNR resources, such as
water and grazing during drought periods, or
plants of medicinal or cultural importance. These
guidelines will be designed in consultation with the
relevant
communities, using the various community
consultation mechanisms detailed under Objective 1
above,
and will aim to provide a practical and
enforceable framework for community access to key resources,
which
meets pressing community needs without undermining
the Reserve’s conservation or tourism values.
Once
agreed, the guidelines will be formalised into
protocols setting out the steps through which communities
can
gain access, any restrictions on this access, and
the types/amount of resources used/collected and time
of
year, and will also specify the penalties for
infringing these agreements.
