One Health: An overview of conservation experiences in Kenya

The forces of globalization have shortened virtual and cultural distances around the world in the last 2 decades. This in turn has exponentially increased the potential of tourism to exert its power on economies, environment,... [ view full abstract ]

The forces of globalization have shortened virtual and cultural distances around the world in the last 2 decades. This in turn has exponentially increased the potential of tourism to exert its power on economies, environment, cultures and the way people think. Tourism has now been positioned as the driving force behind many conservation initiatives, particularly those outside protected areas.Recent developments in Kenya show that indigenous peoples and their livelihoods are being compromised by the exclusive model of tourism in practice at these sites. Tourism investors have been stuck in this paradigm because their product is marketed as a ‘wilderness’ devoid human societies and livelihoods. Tourism-driven conservation can thus become an agent of disenfranchisement of the societies upon whom it is visited. Using the Kenyan and wider African experience as examples, weexplore how the current conservation practice is negatively impacting the societies who conserved wildlife and rangeland habitats for centuries.The decline and disintegration of societies that have been custodians of the rangelands will negate the considerable effort and amount of resources spent on conservation in Kenyan rangelands. This presentation will also suggest ways in which conservation practice can be changed to recover the socio-economic stability of pastoralist societies.