Skip to content Skip to footer

HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT INTERVENTION

A comprehensive report reveals that the Mt. Kenya electric fence is highly effective in tackling human-wildlife conflict. This supports a similar report that was produced in Aberdares.

A report commissioned by Upper Tana Natural Resources Management Project (UTaNRMP) – a key partner of Rhino Ark – and published in 2019 has indicated that there has been a tremendous reduction in human-wildlife conflict in Mt. Kenya where the fence has been built. The study was commissioned to assess the 60km wildlife control fence in Mt. Kenya, focusing on social-economic, and ecological impacts and comparing the situation before and after the fence.

According to records from Kenya Wildlife Service, the fence has been effective in reducing human-wildlife conflict incidences by 97%. (from an average of 117 incidences per annum (between 2004 – 2014) to an average of three incidences per annum after the fence (2016-2018). The human deaths in fenced areas dropped from an average of one annually (between 2007 – 2014) to zero, human injury from one annually to zero, while livestock predation (sheep, goats, and cows) by leopards, lions, and hyenas dropped by 80% from an average of about 10 per annum before the fence to 2 cases annually after the fence.

This further confirmed the findings of the 2011 report on the Environmental, Social, and Economic Assessment of the fencing of the Aberdare Conservation Area. The report highlighted that the Aberdare electric fence has been instrumental in addressing key challenges affecting the Aberdare ecosystem, in particular in reducing human wildlife conflict. In most phases of the Aberdare ecosystem, it was reported that conflicts involving elephants and other wildlife have considerably reduced. Children are able to attend school regularly, business centers are now able to operate till late hours, and crop damage, injuries, and deaths have also been reduced thanks to the Aberdare electric fence. So far 80,000 households are protected from human-wildlife conflicts.

Leave a comment

Contact us on
Feed Them Social: TikTok Feed not loaded, please add your Access Token from the Gear Icon Tab.
Best Choice for Creatives
This Pop-up Is Included in the Theme
Purchase Now