Mara Conservancy Management – No Water No Life

Interviewee

Brian Heath

Mara Conservancy CEO

Interviewers

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Alison M Fast

Videographer

Serena Hill Headquarters, Mara Triangle, Kenya , Sept 30, 2009

Introductory Note

I met Brian Heath in 2000, the day before he became CEO for the Mara Conservancy nonprofit as it was launched to manage the Mara Triangle. Highly poached, this southwest corner of the Maasai Mara was then a no-man’s land, but still vital to millions of migrating wildebeest. Richard Leakey, archeologist and twice Chair of Kenya Wildlife Service, applauded this community-based management plan, musing it could last 2 years. Two years later, I was in the Mara for that anniversary. Now, 24 years later, Brian is still managing this Conservancy which has been a successful model for dozens of new Kenya conservancies.

Brian quietly listened to all – conservationists and politicians. He spent critical hours sitting under acacia trees with the Maasai to pay respect, hear them, explain his mandate and brainstorm so they could work together. That quiet approach allowed the Mara Conservancy to do its job, arresting 4,500 poachers and collecting 57,000 wire snares in its first 16 years. Brian also stewards the Mara River’s water quality and flows that support local wildlife, motivate the migration and etch the Triangle’s eastern border.

Outline

CONSERVATION of a RIVER ZONE
TOURISM IMPACTS
CONSERVATION v. AGRICULTURE
CONSERVATION EDUCATION
TRANSBOUNDARY EFFORTS STOP POACHERS
ONE of “7 WONDERS of the NATURAL WORLD”

Key Quote Regarding Kenya’s tourism, the Mara is “The Jewel in the Crown;” so anything that destroys the Mara will have a huge impact on the river and Kenya’s economy. It’ll also have a potentially huge impact on things like the migration. In the long term, and it will have – and already has had – an impact on the life of hippos, crocodiles and all resident animals that rely entirely on this river in the dry season. – Brian Heath

NWNL Brian, thank you for taking time to discuss the importance of of well-managed tourism within reserves and conservancies, such as this, to maintaining the health of this spectacular Mara River Basin and its ecosystem. Does tourism have a positive or negative impact on conservation of its savanna and the amazing biodiversity here?

CONSERVATION of a RIVER ZONE

BRIAN HEATH Let’s start by talking about the river. One of the first things that The Mara Conservancy Management Plan advocates is that special attention be given to what we call the River Zone. This River Zone is a highly sought-after area for development of camps and lodges because its river and forests are favored habitat for the wildlife the tourists have come to see. Thus, our plan advocates absolutely no new developments along the river zone.

This River Zone is also the most highly used portion of the reserve. Everybody comes in to do their game drives along the edge of the river, so there are restrictions on off-road driving. There is to be no off-road driving within the River Zone. There are tracks down to certain points on the river, and tracks and roads along the river; but you can’t just drive off road off wherever you like.

Since we rigidly implemented this over the last year here on the Trans-Mara side, we’ve seen a huge improvement in vegetation and the look of the river within the river zone. Blocking areas and limiting driving to the roads we’ve put in is having an impact.

I think the next steps should address those people who have already have existing camps and lodges within the River Zone. We need to be tougher on environmental controls on effluent waste and disposal than currently takes place.

Chris Dutton and Amanda Subalusky, scientists with GLOWS, have been doing some research hereon on water quality of the Mara River and it doesn’t seem the Mara River is bad. But its Talek River tributary, which has seen a huge increase in the number of camps and lodges over the last 5 years is a river with major problems. There’s been so much off-take of water by these facilities that now the Talek is just a series of stagnant pools. Those stagnant pools are showing very high levels of E. coli. The dissolved oxygen in the water is at very, very low levels that don’t support certain aquatic life any longer. So, we need to make sure that does not happen on the Mara River.

NWNL You have said there are so many camps set along the Talek River that it’s stopping the wildebeest migratory path….

BRIAN HEATH Yes. In the last few years, we’ve seen a very large increase in the camps and lodges along the Talek River. That tributary to the Mara River forms a northern boundary of part of the Mara Reserve on the Narok side. Development there has now reached a level where it has stopped the free flow of animals crossing the river between the Reserve and areas north of the Reserve.

NWNL What can be done about that?

BRIAN HEATH I think the big solution is to establish some effective wildlife corridors. We also need to close some camps and establish better planning guidelines outside the Reserve. It’s not as much a management issue for the Mara Reserve — it’s a management issue for the area outside the Reserve’s boundaries.

TOURISM IMPACTS

NWNL Tourism seems so intricately involved with this Mara River Basin ecosystem. How do you assess its importance and impact from an environmental viewpoint? And how can management be improved to better address these issues?

BRIAN HEATH Tourism is incredibly important. Nearly a hundred kilometers of the Mara River goes through the Maasai Mara National Reserve and Serengeti National Park; and tourism is incredibly important in sustaining the livelihood of this river, its crocodiles, its fish, its hippos, and the animals that rely on the river for their source of water in the dry season.

While tourism is essential for wildlife and livelihoods within this river basin, it’s also crucial to Kenya’s economy. Regarding Kenya’s tourism, the Mara is “The Jewel in the Crown;” so anything that destroys the Mara will hugely impact the river and Kenya’s economy. It’ll also have a potentially huge impact on things like the migration. In the long term, and it’ll have – and already has had – an impact on the life hippos, crocodiles and all resident animals that rely entirely on this river in the dry season. Tourism could have a potentially huge impact on the migration in the long term, just as it already impacts the lives of hippo and crocodiles and all the resident animals that rely on this river very much on the dry season.

NWNL How does tourism impact the Maasai stakeholders? If the tourism were to stop, how would that impact the Maasai?

BRIAN HEATH Well, tourism provides probably in the region of $20 million a year in park fees to the local authorities. So, it’s a very important source of income for local people. Mara tourism is very, very important as a creator of job opportunities and work opportunities – in the camps and lodges, also in the protectimg animals and supporting rangers, drivers and so on. It’s an incredibly important source of income especially in terms of Maasai jobs and opportunities.

CONSERVATION v. AGRICULTURE

I think that the big challenge that we have in the Greater Mara ecosystem – not just the protected tourist area – is that this land offers great potential for agriculture. Over the last few years there has been much subdivision of what was extensive group ranchland into individually owned private plots of land.

The challenge for the tourism industry is to ensure landowners’ monetary returns are at least equal to any other possible source of income they could have from using their pieces of land themselves. I think the protected area of the Maasai Mara National Reserve has one person per 500 square kilometers. But the area generally known as “the Maasai Mara” covers an area of triple that, much of which was communally owned by the Maasai people. As Maasai have become more sedentary, it is now being subdivided into individual plots of land.

Obviously, a person with a hundred acres of land has the right to do what he likes. He can plant wheat on it. He can put in a residential house. He can invite someone in to put a camp and a lodge. Given that right, the challenge for the tourism industry is to give individual landowners sufficient incentive to dedicate their land for conservation, and not put it in agriculture. We must try to ensure that the landowner gets at least the same value for his land when put in conservation as he would if it were used for planting wheat, maize or anything else. That’s a big challenge.

Today, organizations are forming more conservancies and leasing land from groups of individual Maasai. But tourism returns still don’t match returns from various forms of agriculture. I think we’ll have to gradually try to increase our payments to landowners so they can get a proper return on their land.

CONSERVATION EDUCATION

NWNL You’re also explaining to these Maasai the importance of them, as local stakeholders, being brought into management of the Mara Conservancy and other conservancies. For example, you’ve found scholarships for some Maasai youth to attend Koiyaki Wilderness Guiding School and consequently employed them here after they graduated. That is a tangible example of your incorporating the Maasai into the tourism management sector.

BRIAN HEATH We employ over 100 people in the Triangle and 95 are Maasai residents of the Trans-Mara. We’ve sent people to the well-known and respected College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka, Tanzania. We’ve sent one person so far to the Koiyaki Guiding School, set up to help young Maasai people learn the skills for managing and guiding tourists within the ecosystem to then apply when they complete their courses and return.

We provide ongoing in-house training for members of staff here. We encourage our people to enroll in short courses. Our aim is that the young Maasai we’re training will be able to take over and manage this Conservancy on their own. They should have to need someone like me to come in to do it. But I think we’re still a year or two away from that.

NWNL Is there a ripple effect created by the Maasai who go to these schools and then return to work in tourism and wildlife management? Do they a message of the importance of this ecosystem back to their villages?

BRIAN HEATH Yes, I think overall that one of the reasons that we haven’t had huge pressures of cattle coming into the reserve is that the local people around our boundaries now understand the importance of conservation. They support us managing this ecosystem and protecting it.

Other areas within this country have had huge problems with invasions of cattle into protected areas be it in Shaba or up in Meru National Park; be it in the Narok side of this game reserve. In the Narok region, there has been a huge influx of cattle into the Mara Reserve because they felt that protecting their cattle was more important than wildlife or any other thing. Within Trans-Mara, we haven’t had those pressures. People have learned the importance of conserving and protecting the land for conservation as well.

TRANSBOUNDARY EFFORTS STOP POACHERS

NWNL Your vision for management, has served as an exemplary model for many other conservancies. How does that segue with the fact that Kenya, and East Africa in general, are experiencing a drop in some critical species? There are overall decreases in lion populations and grazing species. But here in the Trans-Mara you have increases in those species. To what do you attribute that?

BRIAN HEATH Overall, Kenya has seen very large declines in wildlife populations in the last 35-40 years, per good surveys published since 1976 by the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS). I think overall in Kenya’s rangelands, we’ve seen at least a 60% decline in wildlife numbers.

I think the key to our success in managing the Mara Triangle lies in our anti-poaching collaboration with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. That has largely turned around wildlife numbers in this region. We’ve seen increases in many key species – elephant, buffalo, eland, topi, impala and lions. The lions have increased 50% in the last 8 years since we’ve been here.

NWNL Congratulations on such success, despite all the issues with Furadan poisoning lions, and other wildlife threats we hear back in the States.

BRIAN HEATH I think Kenya’s protected areas are doing mostly a good job of protecting wildlife. But in the 1990’s it was said that 70% of Kenya’s wildlife was largely outside protected areas. That’s where the huge decline has been – because of competition for resources. Land that was originally rangeland for wildlife was taken over for agriculture. Also, in Kenya, wildlife has been seen as a public resource – not belonging to anybody and able to be utilized by anybody. That has been a big factor contributing to today’s major decline in wildlife populations.

Here in the Mara Conservancy, we’ve been actively strong in anti-poaching efforts. We’ve arrested over 1,260 people in 8 years. That has had a major impact on wildlife populations within this Triangle – and probably more importantly, within Tanzania’s Lamai Wedge, that mirror of the Mara Triangle on the northern Serengeti. We’ve seen a big increase in animals.

NWNL The Mara River Basin is a trans-boundary watershed because it spans Kenya and Tanzania, and that’s why we talk about trans-boundary cooperation.

How did that cross-boundary coordination evolve?

BRIAN HEATH Well, when I first came here 8 years ago, it was obvious that the wildlife didn’t recognize international borders – and thus, there had been generations of free movement of wildlife. Therefore, it was obvious we should collaborate with our counterparts in the Serengeti, using joint patrols, and so on. So, in the last 8 years we’ve developed a very, very good working relationship with our Tanzanian counterparts. We assist them wherever possible, and they assist us.

NWNL Please describe the situation and issues you have faced in Tanzania’s Lamai Wedge that borders Kenya’s Mara Conservancy. Why has it become a poaching hot spot?

BRIAN HEATH The Lamai Wedge is basically the northwestern corner of the Serengeti. It’s bounded by the escarpment which continues down into Tanzania, but its western edge is very heavily populated, mainly by the Wakuria people. They are essentially agro-pastoralists, as well as hunters. They’ve subsisted on hunting for generations as part of their way of life.

They’re not very wealthy people. So, hunting animals for meat is how they supplement their incomes and is their established way of life. They rely heavily on the wildebeest migration when it comes north into Kenya. They hunt extensively and have markets between here and Lake Victoria, a very heavily populated area along both Kenyan and Tanzanian sides of the border. Per reports on numbers of animals killed in a migration, poachers would kill from 100-200 thousand animals a year during the migration.

The Conservancy has had a major impact on reducing those number of animals that have been poached. Sadly, the Wakuria snares are indiscriminate, so they target not only wildebeest and zebra. They’ll catch a lion. They’ll catch a cheetah. They’ll catch a leopard. They’ll catch an elephant. Our patrols and rangers have taken snares off many elephants. At least 15-20 elephant wander around here with their trunks cut off. Maybe a foot, two feet of their trunks cut off by wire snares. Snaring is a very indiscriminate way of killing animals. It has a huge impact on the whole population, not only on the wildebeest or zebra, but on other species.

ONE of “7 WONDERS of the NATURAL WORLD”

NWNL The great migration of the Maasai Mara Serengeti Ecosystem has been recognized internationally as one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. It is a most spectacular and breath-taking natural phenomenon and stands out as a beacon of hope. Perhaps some of this is thanks to sustainable land use by the Maasai. Their nomadic, pastoral lifestyle for hundreds of years nurtured their natural surroundings and the wildlife with whom they’ve shared their lives. Perhaps one could say the Maasai understood sustainability long before the term was invented.

The combination of that Maasai respect for their environment, the Mara Conservancy’s vision of community-based conservation, and your enforcement of that plan seem to be the right recipe to preserve this great ecosystem full of wildlife and the Mara River running through it, quenching the thirst of all its flora, fauna and regional human communities.

BRIAN HEATH Let’s hope so! If the Mara National Reserve is to survive another 50 years, we need to continue developing this road map that will enable us to confront the many challenges this Reserve will face. For this reason, I especially welcome our new Maasai Mara National Reserve Management Plan, the first comprehensive management plan covering the entire Reserve for over 25 years.

NWNL Brian, thank you for all you do – and best of luck in your commitment to the new Maasai Mara National Reserve Management Plan.

Posted by NWNL on May 28, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Mara Conservancy Management Mara River Basin