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| Elelphants roam in Kenya's Amboseli National Park Photo courtesy of Visit Mount Kenya Tours |
Should water be for conservation or for
communities? I think most policy makers, local communities, and
wildlife species would argue that water should be accessible for
everyone and meet the needs of everything on the planet that needs
water to survive. However this is not as easy as it sounds and
often times in East Africa conservation areas and communities battle
over access to water.
Conservation areas in East Africa are
famous for their iconic wildlife and scenic views. These protected
areas are often designed around water, and wildlife will migrate to
these areas during the dry season because there are lakes, rivers, or
springs that provide water year round. One example is the world
famous Amboseli National Park, which is gets its water from nearby
Mt. Kilimanjaro. However, this water is also important
to the local Maasai living outside of Amboseli National Park. A 2002
article by Meitamei Ole Dapash in Animal Welfare Intsitute Quarterly describes the conflict between Maasai and wildlife over the basic
necessity of water.
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| The Amboseli Maasai - Elephant dialogue is convened under a tree. Photo courtesy of the Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly |
According to this article, during the
1999-2000 drought, elephant – Maasai conflicts escalated as
residents adjacent to Amboseli National Park were driven into the
park to collect water for their basic livelihood needs. About 80% of
the permanent sources of water in the region are located in the
center of the park. To add to the conflict, women and children were
forced to walk 10-15 kilometers daily through the park to fetch water
for household use. To mitigate the situation the Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) distributes approximately USD 10,000 annually to the 7
communities surrounding the park. However, this is a very meager
amount given the large annual revenue of Amboseli National Park of
USD 3.3 million and the heavy burden placed on the local people for water access and
human – wildlife conflict. This 1999-2000 drought intensified
the competition for limited water resources, but the Maasai
Environmental Resource Coalition (MERC) helped to create a dialogue
to discuss human-wildife issues, and in particular human-elephant,
conflicts with the KWS. While there is no easy answer to how to
mitigate conflict, an open dialogue is a great start to help promote
water access for both conservation and communities.
Elephant – Maasai conflicts also
occur when water resources are only located near human populations,
forcing wildlife to roam into villages and heavily populated areas.
This news piece by Kenya Citizen TV from 2009 illustrates the human –
elephant conflicts over water in Kenya and even poses some solutions,
such as prohibiting human populations from living near wildlife
areas. As a warning, this video does have some graphic content.
Video courtesy of Kenya Citizen TV
So where do we go from here? Who
should have access to water: the wildlife or the local populations?
What kinds of policy solutions are there for this problem?
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to these questions.
According to Elizabeth Osirmoro, manager for the Mount Kenya East Project:
“The problem began when these areas [around Mt. Kenya] were settled by farmers looking for land to work. More and more new settlements are pushing right up to the park boundary and some have even encroached into the forest reserve. As a result competition for resources between humans and wildlife has intensified.”
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| Elephants attempting to cross a fence. Photo courtesy of L. Osborn from africa-elephant.org |
The KWS is working on human wildlife conflict mitigation measures including
building electric fences and other wildlife proof barriers. Fences
help protect farmers crops and precious water resources. But is this
fair for wildlife to be excluded? Building fences is expensive
and the fences require maintenance. Additionally, the KWS encourages
farmers to build moats and trenches around their land, although this
is very time consuming and labor intensive. Solving this problem in
East Africa is not easy and will take time. Collaboration and an
open dialogue between groups may be the way forward, such as the
example of the KWS and the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition.
However, fences and physical barriers excluding either people or
wildlife are other proposed solutions, and these solutions leave much
to be desired.
Amy, this post is really interesting. I never thought that water could be a subject of conflict between human and wildlife.
ReplyDeleteIt seems in the rural areas of eastern Africa people have limited access to tapped water since they even share water with wildlife,that can be quite harmful to human's health.
I am wondering what percentage of the communities in this area have access to "safe" water. Also, it would be interesting to know about the epidemiology of the diseases that are caused by lack of access to safe water in this area.
Sara Tabatabaie
I agree with Sara, this is really interesting! The video was really informative too, if a bit gory. While I've understood how human water use can negatively impact wildlife in terms of diminished habitat, the potential for actual conflict at watering holes is (given the limited extent of my own personal experience) something that has never occurred to me before. It reminds me of the issue of bush meat, and how people's desire/need for meat often directly conflicts with wildlife preservation initiatives. The environmental problems in East Africa are so drastically different than the ones we contend with in the U.S., it makes me wonder if western-style concepts such as national parks and nature reserves are really the functional answer to the problem of ecosystem conservation, or if a completely new policy initiative would be more appropriate for accomplishing goals (I don't know what, though). Thanks for the post! ~Lisa
ReplyDeleteThis is a fascinating post, and one that rings true for me. I spent half a year in South Africa where similar issues occur all over the country, especially around Kruger National Park. Unfortunately, I didn't hear of any dialogues between local communities and park managers such as you mention MERC helping to create. I know when I spent time with some of the people living close to the park they were bothered by the resource conflicts, but just as upset at not seeing any of the economic benefit from large wildlife reserves. They also never entered the park to go get the water on their own. Do you know what tends to happen when elephants and humans encounter each other? I wonder if the human use of water sources has compressed home ranges and created unusual social dynamics within herds. Thanks for a great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Amy!
ReplyDeleteThis is an issue that comes up time and time again, not just with water, but also with protected area management. I think the best way to go about this would be through some sort of participatory management initiative where different stakeholders, represented in the same space, attempt to arrive to a consensus together. Of course, this is not easy considering the power inequities that exist in a lot of these countries.