Recent developments in the greater Mara have shown
that community wildlife conservancies and other
similar
conservation-oriented landowner associations have
the potential to play a vital role in securing
important
wildlife areas in the greater ecosystem, and in
generating a sustainable, conservation-compatible source
of
revenue for the area’s owners. At present,
one of the most established examples of this type of
development
is the Olare Orok Conservancy, which is located on
the border of the MMNR to the north of the
Musiara
area, and which was formed by more than 100
individual landowners coming together and setting aside
an
area for wildlife conservation in return for a
guaranteed minimum payment by tourism operators that
use
the area. Although not without problems, this
initiative (along with other more recent developments in
Olchorro
and Motoroki) has demonstrated the potential of
such schemes in the greater Mara, and there are
signs that more communities living around the
MMNR, such as in the Koiyaki or Siana areas, are
increasingly
interested in establishing similar
mechanisms.
These community conservation initiatives in the
wider ecosystem have enormous potential benefits for
the
MMNR’s conservation and tourism product
goals – by securing the wider dispersal areas for large
mammals
and by offering a complementary tourism product
that reduces visitor pressure on the core Reserve. For
this
reason, under this management action, Reserve
managers will support and encourage the establishment
and
development of community conservancies, and will,
in particular, support capacity building of the
conservancy
institutions, setting up professional management
systems for conservancies, and promotion of
appropriate
tourism investment needed to make them financially
viable. This will involve, for example, the
establishment
of agreements between MMNR management and
individual conservancies on the scope of
support
to be provided and the conditions conservancies
are expected to meet in return. These agreements are
likely
to cover a number of issues such as security
collaborations, transiting rights, and the possibility of
concessionary
entrance rates for visitors to the MMNR staying on
a recognised conservancy, along with the
requirements
that conservancies or associations must comply
with to maintain support (such as the
development
of a management plan, limits on bed numbers or
restrictions on land uses, etc). In addition, and
where
possible, MMNR management will also encourage
tourism investment in community areas by
facilitating
links between conservancies and potential tourism
investors, and by providing any technical support
needed
to help get community-tourism investor joint
ventures firmly established.
