Illegal Wildlife Trade, Kenya- Project

Officers from the State Department for Wildlife at a workshop in Machakos to develop the conceptual frameworks to support the engagement community scouts in the Tsavo and Maasai Mara Landscapes and the development of framework to aid in sensitization against bush meat trafficking and other forms of Illegal Wildlife Trade by the IWT-KENYA project.

The Project Implementation Committee led by the Chair Dr Ngene and the Program Manager Madam Netty visited the Tsavo Landscape to give a status report of Kasigau and Voi Command Centers being done by the IWT_UNDP project. The committee met up with the contractor and agreed on having the project completed in the next 4 months.

An inception meeting for development of International Agreements between Kenya and Tanzania on the protection and management of the Mara/Serenity and Tsavo/Mkomazi Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) was held at the Lake Naivasha Resort on 11th-12th May 2023.

The project is under our project “Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Kenya through an Integrated Approach (IWT-Kenya)” and has Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) taking the lead in the process to see the delivery of this important project component.

'Let us utilize this opportunity to deliberate on our internal issues affecting us in the landscapes and get a way forward before engagement with Tanzania. This opportunity provides us a chance to explore all the challenges and solutions and a way to harmonize our concerns in the industry' said PS Museiya in her opening remarks that were read by Dr Chepkwony( SDW).

It is expected that the inception workshop will leverage on each other’s abilities’ and draw a clear roadmap to the future of conservation in the 2 landscapes.

"LATF stands ready to provide specialized training and support to enforcement officers and local communities to raise awareness about the negative effects of illegal wildlife trade with the aim of improving coordination and collaboration to curtail the vice." Director Phiri (LATF) assured.

2022 GWP Annual Conference participants Visit Maasai Mara Tourism College

Day 4 of the M&E Framework Development workshop. Participants tackle Lessons learned by the project through participatory M&E; and gender mainstreaming as it will be used to guide project implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Development and 2023 Annual Work plan adoption Workshop underway at the Lake Naivasha Resort.

The framework will form the basis of an M&E system which, coupled with
regular analysis of M&E data, will allow the Project to achieve the following:

1. Identify the most effective project strategies;
2. Check project assumptions (hypotheses) and risks;
3. Prepare management responses to changing political, economic, and ecological environments;
4. Learn from successful and unsuccessful project experiences;
5. Incorporate learning in the project planning and adaptive management; and
6. Share experiences among similar projects in Africa and the world and learn from them at the same time.

Earlier when the UNDP Kenya Deputy Resident Rep Mandisa Mashologu courtesy call on the PS Wildlife Dr Susan Koech to discuss acceleration of the Kenya IWT Project activities

Recently we held a governance training for Mbale, Orpua and Mbokishi Conservancies that are found in the Tsavo and Maasai Mara Landscapes. The training saw the participants understand governance approaches and best practices , increase appreciation of the vital role of governance in community conservancies in Kenya, and develop conservancy level governance improvement action plans for each conservancy.

Welcome to the official page of the IWT Kenya project.

The Project “Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Kenya through an Integrated Approach” (UNDP IWT-Kenya) is led by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife (MoTW) through the State Department for Wildlife as the implementing Partner. It is financed by the GEF trust fund through UNDP-Kenya to the tune of USD 3,826,605 and benefits from parallel co-financing by the Kenyan government, county governments and key wildlife associations, resulting in a total project value of USD 19,392,268. The project document was signed off by the National Treasury in July 2019 and is expected to be completed in 2024.

The Project aims to address the main barriers that currently prevent an effective response to poaching and illegal trafficking of wildlife in Kenya, specifically:

1. Gaps in legislation and regulations.
2. Insufficient coordination and law enforcement capacity for wildlife management and control of poaching and IWT at national and county levels
3. Insufficient engagement of and benefits for local communities in wildlife conservation

The IWT-Kenya Project intends to prescribe a long-term solution in two project areas: Maasai Mara and Tsavo ecosystems, via a highly coordinated approach within and between wildlife management and law enforcement authorities, as well as wildlife conservancies established by local communities. To address this development challenge, the project will achieve its objectives by implementing the following four strategy-based components:

Component 1. Strengthening national and local capacity for effective IWT control in Kenya
Outcome 1. Increased national and local capacity to fight wildlife crime.

Component 2. Reducing poaching and illegal wildlife trade in threatened species in Tsavo and Maasai Mara Ecosystems
Outcome 2. Increased effectiveness of Conservancies, PAs and local law enforcement agencies to control poaching and IWT in Tsavo and Maasai Mara Ecosystems.

Component 3. Strengthening Community Wildlife Conservancies in Tsavo and
Maasai Mara Ecosystems
Outcome 3. Strengthened Community Wildlife Conservancies and benefits for local communities from CBWM and CBNRM in Tsavo and Maasai Mara Ecosystems.

Component 4. Knowledge Management, M&E and Gender Mainstreaming
Outcome 4. Lessons learned by the project through participatory M&E and gender mainstreaming are used nationally and internationally