The CS for Tourism and Wildlife (MoTW) convened a stakeholder meeting via zoom to identify threats and strategic actions to address the emerging crisis in the wildlife sector. The stakeholders comprise Ministry officials, KWS, KWCA, CAK and Development partners – USAID, UNODC, United Nations Environment, EU & AfDB.
The global lockdown and movement restriction have halted the flow of tourist to Kenya, affecting revenue streams of all parks, reserves, and conservancies. The park visitation in national parks and reserves from 16th March 2020 declined by over 80%. And the projected loss of revenue across the wildlife sector value chain, including conservancies and community-based enterprise, has brought operations to a halt.
The KWS has put in place a contingency plan for essential services. Conservancies, on the other hand, are laying off and offering pay cuts for conservancy rangers and conservation NGO have shut down operations. NGO’s have challenges providing support to ongoing community-related projects. Conservancies have lost vast amounts of revenues through tourism affecting operations of community rangers and payment of lease fees.
