The Machakos Wildlife Forum: The Story from a Woman on the Land

Summary

In 1991 a group of ranchers in the Machakos District of Kenya launched an initiative to make“the management of wildlife a happier alternative to its extermination” with a special objective of how“plains game can be accommodated and gainfully managed on ranch lands”. This Chapter tells the story of that initiative, the Machakos Wildlife Forum, beginning with the early descriptions of the area as an idyllic natural environment, teeming with wildlife, through the early colonial days, the expansion of settlement and smallholder farming to the new threat of industrial development and the strangling of the migration routes from the Nairobi National Park into Machakos, its remaining natural dispersal area. The introduction of game cropping and the management and utilization of the wildlife population based on a quota system has halted the decline in numbers and provided some income for the ranches. The recovery of some species populations has been extraordinary, warthog increasing five times, buffalo almost doubling while all the other antelope species have increased. Only ostrich have declined. The re-introduction of hunting and the utilization of hides and trophies would greatly expand the income while continuing to conserve the wildlife. Despite these successes the Machakos District is under increasing threat from the growing human population, sub- division of land, industrial development and the slow development of clear policies that could ensure the full utilisation and conservation of wildlife.