The impact of community conservation management on a semi‐arid savannah herbaceous vegetation and soil nutrient status was studied in the conservation and grazing zones of two community ranches in Laikipia County, Kenya. Land zoning was carried out in 1999 using participatory approaches to demarcate conservation areas excluded from livestock grazing, buffer areas for grazing and high‐intensity use zones for both grazing and settlement. Collected data included cover, grass species composition, standing grass biomass and topsoil chemical characteristics using line transect and quadrant methods. The conservation zones had significantly higher herbaceous diversity, species richness and relative abundance of both annual and perennial grasses, basal cover and herbage and a lower percentage of bare ground compared with the continuously grazed zones. The conservation zones also had higher total organic carbon, organic nitrogen and exchangeable basic cations content, indicating improved soil nutrient status. The grazing zones exhibited loss of vegetation cover and reduction of forage production, with a decline in rangeland condition, whereas the conservation zones showed recovery and improvement of the rangeland condition. Long‐term implementation of Natural resource management programme in community wildlife conservancies seems to drive the semi‐arid savannahs to exist in two steady states and transitions under the influence of grazing. We recommend long‐term monitoring of the impact of the community conservation model on the rangeland and timely incorporation of remedial measures such as shifting bomas (cattle corrals) across the grazing zones, aggressive rangeland rehabilitation of severely degraded areas through reseeding and random grass seed broadcast along stock routes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Human-carnivore conflicts represent the most common negative form of interactions between humans and wildlife. Most carnivores involved in such conflicts are: lion, hyena, leopard and cheetah. Three strategies are normally used in Kenya to mitigate such conflicts; consolation for lost livestock and human life to increase tolerance to them, use of predator proof homesteads especially among pastoralists, use flicking lights at night to discourage approach of carnivores near homesteads, and awareness creation among communities on the ecological role of carnivores. This study examined human-carnivore interactions in privately owned conservancies near Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The conservancies were found to have almost similar human and livestock demography. However, homesteads in Elerai had more fence broken parts and relatively higher levels of livestock predation by lion and hyena. The higher the number of each livestock type was, the higher the specific predation to that livestock type was, implying density dependent effects of predation by carnivores on livestock. It seemed that the fence structure and level of maintenance (including carnivore strategies on specializing on specific livestock size and age consistent with optimizing their foraging strategies) influenced predation incidences. However, the presence of adult males and Maasai warriors (morans) in bomas did not seem to be related with the number of livestock killed by carnivores, implying that they didn't add vigilance as an additional strategy to prevent livestock depredation. It is recommended that attention be paid on maintenance of homestead and livestock fences as well as vigilance to deter predation. We further recommend strategies to prevent livestock predation such as, installation of chain link predator proof fences or carnivore lighting deterrents at night because woody plants fences are ineffective and deteriorate easily with time, and also lead to depletion of plant resources critical to households.
Even though over many years the IUCN has considered the African buffalo and waterbuck and abundant species in Africa with no conservation concern, the situation is rapidly changing. Using aerial counts in wet and dry season in 2010 and 2013, this study assessed the trend, population status and distribution of the African buffalo and common waterbuck in the Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya borderland. Both species were rare in the borderland, with the Amboseli region had the highest number of buffalo (241.5 ± 29.9), followed by Magadi/Namanga (58.0 ± 22.0), West Kilimanjaro (38.8 ± 34.9), and lastly Lake Natron (14.5 ± 9.0) areas. In terms of density, Amboseli also led with 0.03 ± 0.00 (buffalo per km 2), but rest had similar densities of 0.01 ± 0.00 buffalo per km 2. In terms of percent changes in buffalo, Amboseli area had a positive increase (+10.59 ± 27.71), but with a negative growth of −17.12 in the dry season. All other changes in all locations had negative (decline) buffalo numbers over time. For waterbuck numbers, Amboseli area also led with 12.3 ± 3.9 waterbuck), followed by Magadi/Namanga (10.3 ± 3.7.0), Lake Natron (3.8 ± 3.4), and lastly West Kilimanjaro (0.5 ± 0.5) areas. In terms of waterbuck density, they were low and less than 0.00 ± 0.00 per km 2. For percent changes in waterbuck numbers, Magadi/Namanga had higher positive change (+458.33 ± 291.67), but all other locations had negative (decline) changes with the worst being West Kilimanjaro and Lake Natron areas. Further, buffalo number was dependent (p = 0.008) on the season, with numbers being higher in the wet season than dry season.
<p class="1Body">Water is an important good provided by watersheds and is critical in sustaining life and socio-economic development. This study evaluated water provision in the Chyulu Hills watershed which is one of the important dry land water catchments in Kenya. Surface water discharge was mainly through rivers and springs with the latter being more prevalent than the former while ground water provision was primarily through boreholes and shallow wells. Springs discharged the highest water volume annually estimated at 128.14million m<sup>3</sup> or 85.14% of all the water discharged in the watershed, with shallow wells and boreholes discharging the least water. For all the springs found in the watershed, Mzima springs discharged the highest water volume estimated at nearly 113.15 million m<sup>3</sup> annually or 88.30% of the water produced by all the springs; and about 75.19% of the water in the entire watershed. Rivers which were active had a total water discharge of about 20.66million m<sup>3</sup> per year, with Kibwezi River discharging 17.59 million m<sup>3</sup> annually or 85.14% of all the water from rivers. Shallow wells were mainly prevalent at Nthongoni and the Makindu, and their annual water discharge was about 16.96million m<sup>3</sup> per year with boreholes contributing 98.87% (approximately 16.76 million m<sup>3</sup>/yr.) of the ground water, and the rest (19,169.92m<sup>3</sup>/yr.) being contributed by shallow wells. The total amount of water discharged in the watershed by the combined water source types was about 150.49 million m3/yr.</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.