African Lion disappearing in Kenya

The most alarming fact of this wildlife population study is that the population decrease is happening just as fast inside the National Parks as outside the National Parks. The wildlife population declined 41% between 1977 t0 1997, and since then the rate of decline has not slowed.  The study was commissioned by the Kenya Wildlife Service, which manages the Kenya National Parks.  The Kenya Wildlife service said the drastic decline could leave Kenya without the African Lion by 2020, the lion being Kenya’s “symbol of national strength”.     

Unfortunately the study has attracted little attention. Kenya is still dealing with the results of the 2007 presidential election.  The conservation community has also been relatively quiet about the study since it’s really not new news since Kenya has always mismanaged it’s wildlife programs.  There also have been other rarely read studies in the African Continent reporting their wildlife population is also on the decline in protected areas. Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa are the exceptions but if the trend continues the wildlife population in Africa will resemble the wildlife population in Europe; mostly invisible. 

Aside from the mismanagement and political problems what else is causing the wildlife population to decrease?  Overpopulation: the African Continent is expected to grow rapidly, it’s population could increase by more than a billion people by 2050.  What to do about overpopulation is such a complex and controversial subject with many religious, race and geopolitical components I would rather not write about it now but just acknowledge it’s specific effect on the wildlife population in Africa.  Part of the proof that overpopulation is one of the causes of wildlife population decline can be drawn from studying wildlife populations in southern Africa, especially Nambia.  It has a low population density and a stable wildlife population. 

One possible solution that has had some minor success in Kenya is community involvement. There has been wildlife population increases at the Shompole conservation area and tourist lodge which is managed by the Masai community.  For this project the Kenyan government relinquished part of control of the area so the community could be directly involved and therefore would be directly rewarded for it’s efforts.  This situation would be analogous to a US community project where the neighborhood works together to keep their business district clean and safe so it will reap the rewards of increased revenue and property values. 

Unfortunately this type of successful community involvement in Kenya relative to safeguarding the wildlife population is rare.  Placed in between a massive population explosion, poorly managed national parks, political unrest and poaching, ultimately the African Lion might only be seen in a zoo.