Published September 2019
Community Wildlife Conservancy (CWC) model is a community-based natural resource management approach that allows communities to manage and benefits from wildlife and tourism resources existing in their land. The conservancy model in Kenya reflects a shift of wildlife management policy towards community-based conservation strategies that allow co-management of wildlife resources by the communities and the government. In the early 1900, land in the northern parts of Kenya was divided into large scale holdings which were used for ranching and sport hunting (Cronk, 2002). Following the reduction in wildlife numbers in 1970s, the Kenyan government issued a ban on wildlife hunting which led to a growing interest for wildlife conservation.
staline-kibet_final-policy-brief.pdf (slu.se)
In the last eight decades or so several attempts have been made to come up with management approaches to effectively and sustainably manage natural resources within arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) in Kenya.
Among them are Block Grazing, Group Ranching, and Pastoral sedentarization among others, each achieving different levels of success. The Community Wildlife Conservancies (CWC) model is the latest approach aimed at enhancing sustainable development of local communities through harnessing local resources. Since its initial establishment here in Kenya in late 1990s, CWC have brought a number of benefits to local communities such as improved social services and amenities, diversified income, and improve grazing and security. However, the model is faced with a number of challenges that requires policy interventions.