This study investigated the use of traditional health remedies among the Maasai of Kuku Group Ranch of Southern Kajiado District, Kenya. A structured and semi-structured questionnaire was administered to heads or adult members of households in the study area as well as key people who are knowledgeable in Maasai traditional medicine. Use of ethno-medicine was prevalent, with 73% of the respondents indicating this was their preferred type of treatment. Traditional medicine was the primary health care system for the community even though 98% of the respondents mentioned that they frequently sought modern medical care provided by local dispensaries and clinics. Knowledge on traditional plant health remedies was immense, and a wide variety of illnesses and body conditions were treated and managed using locally available medicinal plants. The community had an elaborate and complex pharmacopoeia supported by a wide range of plant species majority of which were readily harvested within the group ranch. Knowledge about the use of ethno-medicinal resources and the resources themselves appeared to be threatened by rapid changes in traditional lifestyles and cultural practices particularly the spread of Christianity, formal education and emphasis on reliance of modern medical care. Plants recognized to be of medicinal value by the community appeared to be equally threatened by a myriad of factors particularly land use changes. There is great need to conserve the rich plant biodiversity in the ranch as well as preserve knowledge on the value and use of traditional plant based remedies amidst a rapidly changing society.

This study identified threats against biodiversity and conservation in Kenya, and their prevalence across protected areas. The susceptibility of protected areas to the threat factors was also assessed.Ten threat factors were identified from information obtained through interviews with protected area officers. The most prevalent threat factors were the bush meat trade, poaching, prevalence of human-wildlife conflicts, human population density and encroachment, and loss of migration corridors and dispersal areas. Most of the protected areas were susceptible to more than half of the threat factors. All marine protected areas,a majority of forested and protected areas popular with tourists were highly susceptible to most of the threat factors. The findings suggest that biodiversity and most of the protected areas in Kenya are currently faced with various threats. Forest ecosystems, marine protected areas and wetlands need urgent and focused conservation strategies to safeguard them and their biodiversity. Tourism is, however, not a major primary threat; paradoxically some of the other threats identified may be a threat to Kenya's tourism industry.

Aims To (1) describe the distribution patterns of land‐snails occurring in afromontane forest habitats on Mount Kenya, in relation to elevation and aspect; (2) explore the relations between the land‐snail faunas and environmental conditions within the forests. Location Mount Kenya, Kenya. Methods Molluscs were sampled using standardized direct search and litter sieving methods in a total of sixty‐four replicated plots along four elevational transects spanning an altitudinal range from 1782 to 2851 m on the east, west, south and north‐northwest sides of Mount Kenya. Elevation, vegetation type, forest structure, soil calcium, soil pH, mean annual rainfall and other environmental variables were measured on each plot. Correlation and joint regression analysis, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to relate snail diversity and abundance, and faunal composition, to site elevation and other environmental variables. Results Sixty‐eight mollusc species were recorded during the study with transect totals between thirty‐four and fifty‐three species. Mean number of species and mean snail abundance ranged from 6.75 to 23.0 and 19 to 348 per plot, respectively. Overall, species richness and Shannon diversity index declined with increasing elevation. Snail abundance declined with increasing altitude along three transects and was positively related to soil pH and soil calcium, but species richness was not. Several species exhibited clear altitudinal distribution patterns. Mean annual rainfall varies greatly around the mountain and tends to decrease with altitude over the elevational range studied. Soil calcium and pH were negatively related to annual rainfall. Estimated mean annual rainfall accounted for the greatest variation in the mollusc fauna around the mountain. Faunas in forests on the drier, western side of Mount Kenya contained higher numbers of species in families that are characteristic of temperate latitudes, whereas tropical families were more prevalent on the wetter, south and east sides. Main conclusions Land‐snail diversity in Mount Kenya’s forests declines with elevation and thus follows the widespread pattern shown by most groups of organism. However, faunal variation appears to be more closely related to rainfall levels, than to altitude per se or the other environmental variables examined. The effects of rainfall on snails could either be direct, or indirect via its effects on soils or vegetation, but the study suggests that direct effects are more important. Indirect effects mediated by changes in soil chemistry appear to be less important because lower altitude sites with more strongly leached and acidic soils tend to have richer and more abundant snail faunas. The reason for the association of temperate latitude mollusc families with forests on the drier, western sides of the mountain is not clear. The number of mollusc species present in Mount Kenya’s forests is broadly comparable with that reported elsewhere in East African forests. However, overall, the data from this study and elsewher...

In Kenya knowledge of the relative severity of threats to protected areas and the vulnerability of these areas to any threats is lacking. Such information is required, however, for assessment of the effectiveness of management of the country's protected areas, and to help identify critical management and policy weaknesses and priorities for improving management and allocating resources. We therefore studied the relative severity of threats to Kenya's 50 protected areas and their relative vulnerability to such threats based on the perceptions of protected area managers. Ten threats were identified by these managers, of which the most severe were illegal bushmeat hunting, poaching of large mammals, human-wildlife conflicts, human encroachment, and loss of migration corridors and dispersal areas. Thirty-two (64%) protected areas were vulnerable to over half of the threats, 54% vulnerable to over six of the threats and 32% vulnerable to over seven of the threats. Protected areas in marine, forested/montane and inland wetland ecosystems were regarded as highly vulnerable to the perceived threats. Protected areas adjacent to urban/industrial and agricultural areas were vulnerable to most of the threats. Our findings demonstrate that protected areas in Kenya are increasingly threatened, that major threats needs to be mitigated, and that prioritization of protected areas for strategic actions is required for effective management.

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Use of traditional medicine is prevalent among rural communities of Africa. They have immense knowledge on ethno-medicine but its use is rapidly diminishing partly due to lifestyle changes and exposure to Western ideologies. This study investigated threats to medicinal plant resources and knowledge on their use in a communally owned Maasai group ranch through a questionnaire and discussions. Traditional medicine was preferred over modern medicine though most members visited local health centers whenever a need arose. Knowledge of ethno-medicine was wide-spread in the community and did not appear to have been significantly impacted by formal education, Christianity or occupation but it varied by gender and among different age groups. Teaching of traditional Maasai ethno-medicine was prevalent but older members of the community felt that the younger generations generally lacked an interest in learning such traditions. The community also felt that medicinal plants harvested within the ranch had declined and attributed this to several factors including; land use changes especially introduction of agriculture, charcoal burning, over exploitation for commercial purposes, drought and increase in human population. Future research is needed to elucidate the impacts of formal education, current lifestyle changes and introduction of Christianity and Western medical care on knowledge and use of ethno-medicine. There is an urgent need to mitigate decline of locally available medicinal plant resources.

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.

Abstract. Little information is available on the threats against biodiversity in Kenya. This is critical in prioritizing conservation strategies and instituting mitigation procedures to contain and or eliminate these threats for the survival of biodiversity in protected areas. This study aimed at documenting relative severity of threats and how serious protected parks are threatened. Two hundred protected area officers were interviewed. The most relatively severe threat factors were bush meat trade; poaching for trophies; human -wildlife conflicts; human population encroachment; loss of migration corridors and dispersal areas. Thirty-two (64%) protected areas were susceptible to over half of the threat factors, while over 70% of them were threatened by an index over 0.5. All marine and nearly all forested/montane protected areas were highly susceptible to the identified threat factors. Further, protected areas popular with tourists were also highly susceptible and threatened. Protected areas around urban/industrial and agricultural areas were threatened mostly by a variety of threat factors. These findings imply that threats to Kenya's protected areas are serious. They are critical in helping the Kenya government to prioritize its strategies in protected areas management, rather than the current haphazard approach.