Protecting wildlife while securing livelihoods through beekeeping initiatives

Community scouts have over time helped combat cases of human-wildlife conflicts, in most cases under difficult circumstances.

The scouts have to trek long distances during patrols.

In Kajiado East constituency lies the Nasaru-Olosho Conservancy.

Nasaru means to rescue, to help and Olosho means community in Maa.

It is the name Maasai landowners gave the conservancy, which aims to protect 168,975 acres of privately owned agricultural land.

A significant number of Kenya’s wildlife and endangered megafauna of Africa, such as lion, elephant and giraffe, live in this ecosystem.

At the conservancy, scouts not only take care of iconic species, but have also been trained on other livelihood skills such as beekeeping.

CEO and founder Jacob Nkananai said Nasaru-Olosho has 652 registered members - the landowners who donated parcels for conservation.

“The idea of conservation came in the year 2013,” Nkananai said.

“We have around 32 conservancies within our ecosystem and it is only Nasaru that has its unique ways as a model of conservancy.”

Nasaru is a dual conservancy as wildlife, livestock and people live together.

Four boreholes have been constructed within the conservancy for use by the community as well as wildlife.

“We mingle in our daily activities and that is a unique model in terms of conservation,” he said, adding that indigenous knowledge has been integrated into conservation.

Near the apiary is a solar-powered borehole that supplies water to the Olmoti outpost, where the beehives are located.

Partners, such as conservation NGO World Wide Fund for Nature-Kenya, have helped communities implement programs.

The interventions by partners, especially in a wide range of community-led livelihood projects such as beekeeping, have helped the locals earn a livelihood.

Nkananai said the project encompasses the entire value chain from training and market linkages to value addition.

One of the objectives of forming the community conservancy was for the pastoral communities to benefit from wildlife and compatible activities such as beekeeping, to help them begin to realise the importance of conservation.

“Conservation has helped create employment opportunities. Currently, we have 36 community scouts who have gone for basic training through Kenya Wildlife Service but have not graduated,” Nkananai said.

Since beekeeping was a new idea to the community, scouts were trained to help monitor the beekeeping projects.

“We have supported 40 groups through beekeeping projects. It was a new idea in this locality.”

WWF-K supports 21 community scouts while Sheldrick Wildlife Trust supports the rest.

The scouts also train the beekeeping groups.

“The reason why we keep bees is that they are part of conservation,” Nasaru beekeepers chair Mathew Muteleu, said.

Muteleu, who doubles up as a scout, said his group has 21 beehives that were donated by WWF-K.

The organisation also trained them on beekeeping last year.

They will harvest honey later this year, he said, even as they look for markets.

The conservation idea sought to provide a solution to the human-wildlife conflict that has been experienced in the area for decades.

Some of the interventions include solar-powered elephant deterrent fences that have been erected around 10 schools to keep off wildlife.

Retaliation killing was common, but was not a solution and was against the law.

Nkananai lauded the scouts saying they have helped bring down conflicts apart from assisting the community in beekeeping initiatives.

The community's attitude towards wildlife has since changed due to the benefits they have gained.

Nkananai said there has been no retaliation killing since the beginning of the year.

Last year, there were five cases of retaliation killings, especially lions being poisoned.

“We also had cases of elephants with spear injuries.”

There were many cases of retaliatory killings in 2022.

The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association says there are 160 community conservancies in the country covering 6.36 million hectares, which is 11 per cent of Kenya's land mass.

KWCA says 65 per cent of wildlife in Kenya is outside parks and reserves.

The association says 930,000 households benefit from community conservancies.

Job opportunities are provided to over 4,500 conservancy employees.

In addition to sparking the development of social amenities in rural communities, conservancies in Kenya are home to some of the world’s most endangered species, such as the Black and White Rhinos, Grevy’s Zebras, Hirola, Wild Dog, Giraffes and Elephants.

In southern Kenya, for example, home to the Maasai people and the great wildebeest migration, 15 conservancies have secured half a million acres of pristine habitat.

The lion population has doubled and 3,000 households earn more than Sh127,919,372 ($4 million) annually.

KWCA says Kajiado county hosts the highest number of conservancies (24).

Following closely is Taita Taveta with 22 and Narok, 17.