Rangers grow desperate over low funds

Matt Brown, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: April 28. 2008 10:21PM UAE / April 28. 2008 6:21PM GMT

A team of rangers from the Mara Conservancy patrols the Maasai Mara on the hunt for poachers. Matt Brown / The National

Maasai Mara, Kenya // Joseph Kortom led his team of rangers into a patch of trees where poachers usually hide. The 12 men from the Mara Conservancy fanned out and swept the thicket while carrying ancient Second World War-era rifles just in case.

The rangers found no poachers this time, just an old campsite littered with animal bones.

“We caught some poachers here sometime back,” Mr Kortom said. “They ate very many zebras.”

Two days ago, Mr Kortom’s unit caught three poachers. Armed with spears and on foot, the poachers had slipped across the porous Kenyan-Tanzanian border at night. They came to hunt warthog, a tasty animal that will fetch US$16 (Dh 58) on the illegal bush meat market.

Had the poachers eluded the rangers for another day, they would have likely slid back into Tanzania undetected that night. The cash-strapped Mara Conservancy has had to cut its night patrols, giving poachers a window in which to operate.

“The night patrols were important,” said Joseph Kimojino, a ranger. “At night, rangers lay ambushes on poacher paths. Now, with no night patrols, these guys are getting a chance to come in.”

Protecting wildlife is not cheap, and the Mara Conservancy, on the front lines of Kenya’s human-wildlife conflict, is nearly broke. Besides cutting poaching patrols, the organisation has had to drop its compensation scheme that gave locals an incentive not to kill wildlife.

The organisation survives on park entrance fees. But tourists have avoided the world-famous Maasai Mara and other Kenyan destinations since a disputed December election that plunged the country into bloody tribal fighting.

A peace deal ended the violence, but Kenya has had a difficult time convincing tourists to visit the country’s game parks and beaches. Tourism is down by 80 per cent and organisations that run on tourist dollars are struggling.

“This is the worst it’s been,” said Will Deed, a Conservancy worker.

The organisation is facing a $50,000 shortfall this month and will not be able to pay the 45 rangers’ salaries, Mr Deed said.

Unlike other national parks in Kenya, which are managed by the national government, the Maasai Mara, a vast grassy savannah with some of the country’s best game viewing, is held in trust for the Maasai people.

Local councils are charged with managing the land. In the rugged western half of the reserve, the local government hired the Mara Conservancy in 2001 to protect the wildlife.

The poachers come from the Kuria tribe in Tanzania and go after the meatiest animals, such as warthogs, zebras and giraffes. The most valuable bush meat – hippo – sells for US$166 for an animal of good size.

The Maasai, famous in Kenya for being fierce warriors, do not eat wild animals. They have plenty of cows and goats to feed themselves. But the Maasai do kill lions and leopards when the predators threaten their livestock.

To prevent revenge killings, the Mara Conservancy started paying the Maasai US$250 (Dh918) for each cow and US$33 for each goat killed by a wild animal. The scheme worked well and the reserve’s big-cat population thrived.

But since the Conservancy ran out of money, the majestic animals are threatened again.

High on a precipitous escarpment overlooking the Serengeti plains, the village of Enkereri has been tormented by a leopard. Last week, the animal jumped a fence and made off with a pregnant goat.

A group of men from the village found the leopard and surrounded it. They threw stones at the animal and were ready to spear it until the rangers arrived just in time to save the leopard.

Kipas Manie, the village chief, knows that a live leopard is more valuable than a dead one because of the tourism revenue it generates. But he is finding it difficult to convince the other villagers, since they are not being compensated for their lost livestock.

“It’s a big problem, but what can we do,” he said. “We are losing cows and getting no money. For the Maasai, a cow is our bank.”

Until the Mara Conservancy can properly fund the compensation scheme, Mr Manie is bolstering his fence with thorny acacia branches to keep the predators out of his livestock pens.

“We will make a better fence, so we don’t have to kill the leopard,” he said, gesturing to the circular livestock enclosure. “They say there is no money because there are no tourists. We know that when they get money, they will pay us.”

Rangers and villagers are hoping that the annual wildebeest migration in July will draw the tourists back. In the meantime, the Conservancy is scraping by on donations.

Using a satellite internet connection from the rangers’ bush camp, Mr Kimojino, the ranger, has started blogging to appeal for donations. In his blog (www.maratriangle.wildlifedirect.org), Mr Kimojino provides a glimpse into the daily operations of the rangers and posts photos of some of the reserve’s most spectacular animals.

The rangers remain committed to protecting the wildlife during this crisis. They know that if they simply give up, there will not be many animals for the returning tourists to see.

“Times are tough and we have to tighten our belts,” Mr Kortom said. “But we can’t stop working. We love these animals.”

mbrown@thenational.ae