Assessment of Governance and Equity of Lumo and Satao Elerai Conservancies for improved conservation and development outcomes.
Summary
Wildlife conservancies in Kenya face several governance-related challenges such as biases against women and youth, lack of recognition and respect for the rights of all relevant actors, lack of full and effective participation of all relevant actors in decision making, lack of transparency, information sharing, and accountability by those in authority and lack of equitable benefit sharing. The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) has prioritized the assessment of governance and equity among member conservancies with a view to identifying and implementing actions for effective biodiversity conservation and improved livelihoods for the communities. In 2021, KWCA, through the support from BIOPAMA’s Small Technical Grants for Assessment, supported the deployment of the SAGE tool in Lumo Community Wildlife Conservancy and Satao Elerai Conservancy to identify and prioritize actions for strengthening governance and equity for improved biodiversity and social outcomes.
Classifications
Region
Scale of implementation
Ecosystem
Theme
Challenges
Sustainable development goals
Aichi targets
Challenges
Social
- Exclusion of women and youth in conservancy management and decision making processes
Economic Challenges
- Unclear benefit sharing arrangements within conservancies
- Lack of alternative income opportunities
Environmental
- Increased poaching incidences especially for bushmeat due to COVID-19 disruption of livelihoods
- Overgrazing within the conservancies due to unplanned grazing practices
Beneficiaries
- Conservancy members including women, men and youth
- Conservancy board and management
- Assistant SAGE facilitators drawn from the conservancies
- Private investors in the two conservancies
- Conservation NGOs working with the two conservancies
Building blocks
How do the building blocks interact?
The building blocks were closely linked and complemented each other to deliver a successful SAGE process. Effective communication was key in co-identification and engagement of stakeholders on the project scope as well on awareness creation, and training of the stakeholders on SAGE tool and processes.
Impacts
- Despite the project being implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to successfully complete all the planned activities within the project time-frame. These activities included stakeholders’ analysis, facilitator training, SAGE assessment, SAGE synthesis workshop and development of actions for implementation
- The project directly reached more participants (145) than was initially intended (60).
- Satao Elerai Conservancy has included youth and women in the conservancy's decision making processes. A youth representative has been included in the conservancy committee and women are now consulted on decision making processes of the conservancy including conservancy meetings.
- Oza, a constituent ranch of Lumo conservancy now includes youth and women in their boards.
- The participatory and self assessment character of the SAGE process made it prossible for all the stakehoders, including women and youth, to participate in the decison making processes of the conservancies.
Pictures
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