NOTES FROM THE FIELD - USAID ACTING ADMINISTRATOR VISITS THE MARA
Greetings from Nairobi!
This month, we welcomed USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa, who oversees the work of USAID projects in 100 countries, to Kenya. He met with female entrepreneurs and highlighted three investments in Kenyan women made by the White House-led Women's Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative. He also announced the donation of 200 American-made ventilators to support COVID-19 response and highlighted the U.S. Government's commitment to religious freedom.
The USAID Environment Office and partners hosted him in the Maasai Mara where, alongside U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter, he announced $7 million in new funding for locally led conservation activities and stressed USAID's commitment to community-based conservation programs.
We want to thank our tremendous partners in the Mara for their warm hospitality and passionate overview of how they are effecting meaningful conservation change with support from USAID. Read about the Acting Administrator's visit and the opportunities and challenges of implementing community conservation in the time of COVID-19.
I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.
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Aurelia Micko
Environment Office Chief
USAID Kenya and East Africa
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FIRST STOP: NABOISHO COMMUNITY CONSERVANCY |
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Naboisho Conservancy is a fantastic example of community conservation. The 53,000 acre reserve is home to elephants, cheetahs, lions, buffalo, wildebeests, and more than 600 landowners. The landowners provide conservation easements through long-term land leases. There are eight tourist camps and lodges, and the conservancy employs 46 community rangers to safeguard wildlife and visitors.
USAID works with KWCA and MMWCA to strengthen Mara conservancies, address challenges, and create large-scale impact for communities in the Mara ecosystem.
COVID-19 has severely disrupted tourism and the community conservation initiatives that depend on the revenue tourism generates. USAID has designated $15 million to address deficits in the operations costs of partner conservancies and community livelihood funds for the next fiscal year. It is also supporting capacity building and policy initiatives that will make community conservancies stronger following COVID-19.
On the recent visit to Naboisho Conservancy, U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter tweeted,
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"Our goal is to bring back American tourists to help rejuvenate the Kenyan economy."
Follow Ambassador McCarter on Twitter here.
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KWCA estimates that community conservancies directly impact the lives of more than 700,000 Kenyans. The temporary infusion of funds by USAID will help stabilize the region as we all recover from the global pandemic. |
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Naboisho Conservancy, above, borders Maasai Mara National Reserve to the southwest. It's been a community conservancy since 2010. Maasai landowners gain from tourism and wildlife gain from expanded conservation. |
Tourism operators like Asilia, above, draw global visitors whose conservation fees provide local communities with sustainable livelihoods and contribute to conserving wildlife within the Mara ecosystem.
Engaging private sector actors, like Asilia, is crucial to the community conservation model, as is spreading awareness about the opportunity to visit community conservancies in addition to national parks and reserves.
USAID has partnered with conservancies in Kenya since the 1980s and has invested $97 million to support biodiverse landscapes, promote communities, and preserve the natural heritage of Kenya.
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MAASAI MARA WOMEN'S FORUM AT KOIYAKI GUIDING SCHOOL
Making the Link between Well-being, Sustainable Livelihoods, Land Ownership, and Conservation
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The Maasai Mara Women's Forum is based at Naboisho Conservancy. It has 50 members and is one of several community-based natural resource groups within the Mara that USAID supports.
The Maasai are one of the most impoverished ethnic groups in East Africa and their gender norms make it very difficult for women to reach their full potential. Over 70 percent of Maasai girls have been pregnant or have had a child before 18 years of age, and the situation has worsened since school closures due to COVID.
Female genital mutilation or cutting is pervasive among the Maasai community. A girl is presumed to be ready for marriage after undergoing cultural initiation at the age of 8 years old. Once married, Maasai women do not have the right to divorce, except in the most egregious cases of physical abuse. Divorced women are not allowed to remarry and widowed women become the property of one of her husband’s brothers.
Women's empowerment is a critical component of the community conservancy model. USAID and MMWCA are supporting women's forums, vocational training, and livelihood projects to help women take leadership positions within their community and to gain opportunities through economic empowerment and land rights.
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“When I learned that my 13 year-old daughter was pregnant, words can’t match what I felt. I was extremely heartbroken; I felt like someone had died and in many ways many things had come to an end such as her education, her dreams of a better life compared to the life I live and most importantly, her childhood.”
- Naewoesupat Taki, member of the Masai Mara Women’s Forum.
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Above, Mary Nadupoi of the Olodomu Ndomonok Maasai Mara women’s forum addresses the USAID delegation and answers their questions about life as a Maasai woman and the benefits and challenges of community conservation. |
The USAID delegation suggested initiatives that encourage and enable young mothers to return to school. They also wanted to hear more about land distribution and the challenges to becoming women landowners. Women own only .1 percent of land in Narok County (of which Naboisho Conservancy is a part.) With funding from USAID, MMWCA supports women's forums and gender workshops to raise awareness regarding women's rights (such as their right to own land and inherit land) and to encourage them to take leadership roles in their communities.
The new Local Works program that Acting Administrator John Barsa and U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter announced during their visit to the Mara will have a strong focus on women and youth.
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“If half of a country’s population is not fully engaged in economic development, then that country is not likely to prosper.”
- USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa
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UNITED STATES DONATES $7 MILLION TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN MARA, NORTHERN, AND COASTAL KENYA TO RECOVER FROM ECONOMIC LOSSES DUE TO COVID-19 |
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Ambassador McCarter and Acting Administrator Barsa concluded their time at Naboisho Conservancy by announcing a new 3-year Local Works program with a budget of $7million (KSh 759 million) to support local communities in the Mara landscape, Northern, and Coastal Kenya recover from the loss of tourism and livelihoods due to the adverse impacts of COVID-19. |
“Tourism is critical to a strong Kenyan economy and the United States is committed to helping Kenya’s magnificent tourist areas remain strong as tourists start to return,”
said Ambassador McCarter.
“By focusing our assistance directly to and for local communities, we ensure the funds are used by those who know what is needed best and increase transparency and accountability. USA Marafiki means making sure our support goes where it is needed,” he emphasized.
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USAID will be developing the Local Works programs with local organizations to expand conservation work in Kenyan ecosystems. The program will be fully driven by conservancy leadership and their members and grounded on what they identify as their highest priorities.
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“Local Works will focus on conserving biodiversity and wildlife, increasing women’s participation in the governance and leadership processes and provide opportunities for women-owned, conservation-focused enterprises,” said Acting Administrator Barsa.
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John Barsa, USAID's Acting Administrator and Angela Sanau, Gender and Youth Program Officer Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservation Association at the Naboisho Conservancy, where he announced $7 million toward a 3-year Local Works program. |
The Maasai, above, have traditionally lived within and alongside Kenya's most famous game parks. The Mara contains 25 percent of Kenya’s wildlife, including some of the highest densities of lions in all of Africa, and approximately 3,500 elephants.
The Local Works program targets vast geographic areas that are home to some of the most vulnerable communities in Kenya, such as the Maasai.
Learn more about USAID's Local Works program here.
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NASHULAI MAASAI CONSERVANCY WINS 2020 EQUATOR PRIZE |
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Congratulations to Nashulai Maasai Conservancy, one of 10 global recipients of the Equator Prize 2020, which is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. The Conservancy, which is the first Maasai-owned and operated conservancy in the Maasai Mara, was chosen from close to 600 nominations in 120 countries. The Conservancy is part of MMWCA, a 15-member body that implements the Effective Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihoods Improvement in the Maasai Mara Region. This is a USAID-funded project on community conservation in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
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"The prize means a lot to us because it is a testament to the model of conservation that we have created in our community. We have organized ourselves such that coexistence is promoted between wildlife and people and livestock - the first of its kind in the Mara. It is the crowning of our dreams and hopes of creating a narrative that shows that the future conversation in the 21st century is not to exclude people from nature but to have all of us together."
-- Nelson Ole Reyia, Director of Nashulai Maasai Conservancy
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Equator Prize 2020 Award Ceremony - Equator Initiative
The Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme, is awarded biennially to recognize outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Read more
www.equatorinitiative.org
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS AND OPINION ROUNDUP
(Articles and headlines are taken directly from the sources cited)
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Nairobi, Kenya, October 5, 2020 – On October 4, the United States through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new Sh759 million ($7 million) 3-year Local Works program in the Mara landscape, Northern, and Coastal Kenya to support local communities recover from the loss of tourism and livelihoods due to adverse impacts of COVID-19. Source: U.S. Embassy Nairobi, Kenya. Read more.
US Govt donates Ksh759M to communities funds for Mara, Northern and Coastal communities
Local Works program to cushion them against COVID-19. Source: Kenya CitizenTV. Watch.
Nashulai Conservancy has been ranked among the top best performers in the world by the United Nations Development Programme.
The conservancy is situated on the outskirts of world-famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve, which is now the eighth wonder of the world. Source: The Star. Read more.
Rich in wildlife as well as cultural and heritage sites, the East African region joined other African states and the rest of the world to mark World Tourism Day earlier this week. Under the theme of “Tourism and Rural Development,” the East African Community (EAC) celebrated World Tourism Day in a 2-hour virtual session.
Home to some of the beautiful wildlife sites in the world, the EAC region hosts a quarter of all protected areas in Africa and some of the greatest global concentrations of large mammals in both protected and non-protected areas. Source: eTurbonews. Read more.
More than three years after a landmark case recognizing its ancestral home, an Indigenous, forest-dwelling community in Kenya continues to face forced eviction by the government.
Living deep in Kenya’s Mau Forest Complex, the Ogiek people spent 12 years in the Kenyan courts seeking legal redress and acknowledgment of their rights to their homeland. When that proved unfruitful, they turned to the international stage. Source: Christian Science Monitor. Read more.
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USAID Kenya and East Africa Environment | www.usaid.gov/east-africa-regional/environment |
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