The process used to develop the new management
plan as well as the plan’s structure were based on the Kenya
Wildlife Service’s Protected Areas Planning
Framework, or PAPF, which is designed to provide a planning
standard for all of Kenya’s parks and reserves. The entire
plan took around a year and a half to develop, and involved
extensive participation from the MMNR’s many stakeholders
(see Annexes 2 and 3 for full details of the planning events and
stakeholder participation). In actuality, this plan is the product
of the minds of a large cross section of the Reserve’s
stakeholders, and represents a consensus viewpoint on how this
priceless natural and economic asset of the Maasai people and of
the nation should best be managed and conserved in the
future.
In addition to the unprecedented and comprehensive
involvement of stakeholders in the development of the plan, another
key aspect is that the new management plan is designed to provide a
mechanism for managing the MMNR as a single visitor
destination and ecological unit. Over the years, the management
of the Narok and Trans Mara sections of the Reserve has gradually
diverged, to the extent that today there are significant
differences on both sides of the Reserve, which leads to confusion
amongst the area’s users and inefficiencies in the use of
management resources. One of the key underlying principles in
developing this management plan was therefore to bring the
management of the two sides of the Reserve much closer together,
through coordinated management based on a shared vision and
objectives, and common management action priorities. An important
mechanism for achieving this integrated management is the
establishment of a Memorandum of
Understanding between the Narok and Trans Mara County
Councils for the joint implementation of this management plan (see
Annex 1).
Technical supervision and co-financing for the
development of the MMNR Management Plan 2009-19 has been provided
by the African Wildlife Foundation, while the Conservation
Development Centre (CDC) was responsible for facilitating the
planning process and drafting the eventual management plan, working
hand-in-hand with Reserve managers and stakeholders and under the
oversight of a Core Planning Team made up of key stakeholders and
managers. CDC had previously developed the general management plan
for neighbouring Serengeti National Park as well as providing
support to Kenya Wildlife Service in developing the
PAPF.
