A key aspect of this Zonation Scheme is the
determination of the appropriate levels of visitor use in the
various zones, which in the KWS PAPF planning process is termed
“Limits of Acceptable Use”, or LAU. In order to
determine the number of visitors per day that is acceptable in each
zone, the PAPF uses a simple modelling approach based on vehicle
encounter rates to estimate the quality of the visitor experience
in any particular zone in the protected area concerned. However, at
an early stage in this planning process, it was decided that the
vehicle encounter rate approach is not appropriate in the MMNR.
This is because of the very high density of official and unofficial
game viewing roads and tracks in the Reserve, which makes it very
difficult to accurately assess the total track lengths available in
each zone, a key requirement of the encounter rate approach.
Another issue impacting on the usefulness of the encounter rate
approach is that, with such high densities of track networks and
with relatively high visibility throughout much of the MMNR, the
quality of the visitor experience in any zone not only depends on
the frequency of encounters with other vehicles on a track, but
also on the number of vehicles that are seen across a viewshed;
i.e., on neighbouring or even relatively distant tracks (especially
in the case of highly visible white vehicles).
For these reasons, an alternative approach to
understanding current and future levels of visitor use in the
different MMNR zones was developed as part of this planning
process, based on the calculation of visitor densities (i.e.
number of visitors per sq km). To develop estimates of visitor
densities, it was first necessary to carry out a comprehensive
inventory of accommodation facilities not only within the Reserve,
but also located in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, whose visitors to
varying degrees make use of the Reserve. The inventory was built up
using existing sources of information, such as facility inventories
that have been made by KATO and Campfire Ltd, as well as site
visits by the planning team to individual tourism facilities and
information sent to the planners by tourism stakeholders operating
in the greater ecosystem. For each facility, the type of facility
(e.g. lodge, permanent tented camp, etc.), the number of beds, and
the location (with GPS coordinates wherever possible) were
recorded. The resulting database, while not fully comprehensive
(new facilities are still being constructed at a rapid pace)
provides a ground-breaking and perhaps startling picture of the
extent and intensity of tourism development that has occurred in
the ecosystem over recent years. As shown below overpage, there are
now at least 140 tourism facilities in the Greater Mara Ecosystem,
comprising more than 4,100 beds in total. This data serves to
underscore the intense tourism developmentand visitor use pressure
onthe wider ecosystem and, as far as this current
planning process is concerned, on the Mara National Reserve
itself.
Taking into account more detailed surveys, there
are two major conclusions to draw from these
findings:
1. Measures need to be incorporated into this
management plan designed to encourage tourism facilities located
outside the Reserve to make more use of the Greater Mara
Ecosystem rather than relying on the Reserve itself as their
primary tourism product. The development and promotion of such
measures has the additional benefits of encouraging conservation
compatible land-use and the creation of community conservancies in
the greater ecosystem. This in turn will help promote the
preservation of wildlife dispersal areas and migration routes that
are critical to the MMNR (see Ecological Management Programme) as
well as the enhancement of conservation-based economic benefits for
the local communities.
2. Because of the very high visitor use pressures
on the Reserve originating from outside the MMNR, there is very
little scope for developing any new accommodation facilities within
the Reserve, without risking irreversible damage to the
Reserve’s tourism product and the exceptional ecological
values upon which the tourism product depends. This is despite the
fact that, without the greater understanding of visitor use of the
Reserve provided by the Mara Tourism Facilities Database and
associated visitor use models, it may at first glance appear that
there is still some scope for tourism facility development in the
Reserve.
