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A Conservation Planner’s Perspective on Human Wildlife Coexistence

Horris Wanyama is an ecologist with over 10 years of experience in conservation management, currently serving as conservation planner with Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA). His role involves supporting conservancies with the development and implementation of management plans and ecosystem plans. Most recently, Horris was one of the attendees of the HEC workshop we held in Nairobi in the beginning of May.

A portrait of Horris Wanyama

 

Tell us more about where you are from, your background, and how it may have influenced your passion for conservation.

 

I grew up in a community along the slopes of Mt. Elgon; an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale, and in 2006, I was admitted to Moi University to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Management. At the time, I had difficulties accepting the course because growing up near Mt. Elgon National Park had exposed me to the negative effects of the human-elephant conflict. However, after several failed attempts to enroll in another course, I had no alternative but to pursue it. Some may call it kismet. Five years later, I grew to love the course, which led me to perform well and top my class. After university, I got an opportunity to intern at Tsavo West National Park, where my career kicked off.


Horris as a Kenya Wildlife Service rhino researcher at Tsavo West National Park with rangers doing a monitoring exercise.

 

 

In your experience researching about, and working with wildlife, what has been the highlight of your career?

 

Before joining KWCA, I served as Research Team Lead at Natural State, where I led a team of field researchers in collecting both above and below ground carbon. I also worked as a Conservation Monitoring Coordinator at Space for Giants, where I led the conservation monitoring and technology wing building capacity on quality data collection and management through SMART and Earth Ranger. One of my achievements was spearheading the renowned Rhino Impact Investment (RII) Project to full realization through forging a collaboration between the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and Conservation Alpha.

 

Apart from my thesis focusing on the population performance of black rhinos in Tsavo, I have also participated in numerous international conservation fellowships in London, Madagascar, and Namibia. I am an accredited member of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) that exists to promote the development and long-term maintenance of viable populations of the various subspecies of African rhinos in the wild, and a fellow of both the ZSL EDGE Fellowship and the Tropical Biology of Africa

 


Ranger training sessions on elephant and rhino monitoring training at Lolldaiga Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya.

 

 

Let’s talk about conservation planning. What is the impact you’re working to create in human-elephant coexistence in your tenure?

 

As KWCA, we have engaged several partners in developing and currently implementing two ecosystem plans for two critical landscapes, i.e., Maasai Mara and Amboseli. These ecosystem plans clearly stipulate land use plans for both human development and wildlife spaces. It secures wildlife corridors and adds economic value to wildlife conservation through various favourable models. These models have increased people's love for wildlife, thereby minimizing human-eagle conflicts. We are currently scaling up the same ecosystem-based approach to other landscapes in the county.

 

Is there any story you can share that keeps you hopeful for wildlife conservation?

 

Since my early years in the conservation career, I have witnessed a few of my close friends’ rangers losing their lives to shifters and poachers. The latest being in 2019, when my very close friends Fred and the heavily pregnant Florence were killed at the Sagalla Ranch-Tsavo Conservation Area by elephant poachers while protecting the wildlife. Such incidents have given me more and more motivation to push forward for my comrades who were not able to continue with our mission of protecting our wildlife. The many cases of human-elephant conflict show that as both populations go up, land is still intact. This pushes us to develop some modern land use plans to balance such threats, hence giving hope for future conservation.

 




Elephants in Amboseli, Kenya photographed by Sam Kiiru

 

Looking ahead on a personal level, what are your dreams and ambitions for the conservation of Kenya’s elephants? 

 

Elephants have very vast home ranges; hence, Kenya needs proper planning to protect such keystone species. I strongly believe in conservation planning through the development and implementation of ecosystem-based approaches. Having participatory sessions with the communities living around protected areas and conservancies to understand the importance of conserving elephants. Developing a clear benefit-sharing mechanism and adding value to conservation. I am looking at supporting more landscapes to develop and implement their ecosystem plans, thereby creating more room for roaming elephants to benefit the people.

 

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