The programme’s second objective focuses on
actions to improve the array of community
benefits from the MMNR, including direct financial
benefits, employment opportunities, and enhancing tour operator
social responsibility programmes, as well as the development of
tourism attractions in the wider ecosystem. The third objective
complements this approach by focusing on
reducing human-wildlife conflict around the MMNR,
and in particular on strengthening the financial sustainability of
the existing “consolidation scheme” and
expanding its coverage around the entire MMNR, as well as the
piloting of more innovative conflict prevention techniques, such as
the development of “predator proof bomas” and
the establishment of a “lion guardian
scheme”.
Unlike Kenya’s national parks, which aim to
benefit the entire nation, the MMNR was established
on
community trust land and therefore, in addition to
the Reserve’s role in protecting the area’s
exceptional
natural resources, a primary function is to
provide economic benefits to improve the livelihoods of
residents
of the two districts in which it is located.
Consequently, an important aspect of achieving the overall
purpose
of this programme, and in enhancing support for
the Reserve’s continued conservation, is ensuring that
these
communities receive tangible economic benefits
from the MMNR’s vibrant tourism industry. The
provision
of these benefits is especially important for
communities living adjacent to the Reserve who bear the
major
costs of conservation, in particular through
wildlife-human conflict (discussed in more detail under the
next
objective), and who are also in a position to
engage in and support the development of conservation
compatible
land uses and enterprises around the MMNR
(discussed under Objective 4 below).
Significant steps have already been taken to help
ensure that communities around the MMNR receive
economic
benefits from the area. Most notably, these
include the allocation of a percentage of MMNR
entrance
fees to communities, the employment of local
people in both MMNR management and tourism
enterprises,
and, in some parts of the MMNR, restricted access
to specific natural resources within the area (such as
cattle
salt licks and medicinal plants). However, these
benefits have not always been equitably distributed
within
the communities around the MMNR, and in some
communities they have been perceived as insufficient
to
balance the costs they incur. In response, this
objective has been developed in an effort to enhance the
benefits
that the MMNR provides to adjacent communities,
and to ensure that these benefits are distributed
both
equitably and efficiently. The three management
actions that have been developed to achieve this are
elaborated
below.
