Conservation of Resources through Enterprises (CORE)

August 1999 - July 2004

Please note this is a closed archived program

Within many developing countries concerns about environmental preservation are over-shadowed by the hardships of poverty and the need to use all available resources. In Kenya conservation is primarily focused on national parks and game reserves, which comprise only 8% of the country's landmass. Even when conserving wildlife becomes an economic proposition, it does not guarantee the future of wildlife conservation in Kenya. Economic interventions must be coupled with strong conservation education and extension efforts for longer-term benefits. Private landowners with wildlife resources must not only develop an appreciation for the economics of wildlife, but also a conservation ethic based on the intrinsic, scientific and aesthetic values of wildlife and their habitats.

Therefore, the overall goal of CORE project is to improve conservation and management of natural resources through increased benefits to communities and landowners in areas critical to parks and reserves. This goal will be met by addressing the policy, cultural, institutional and human resource capacity challenges attendant in making conservation of wildlife and habitats valuable to local communities contiguous to these areas.

Since August 1999 Pact has collaborated closely with the East Africa Wildlife Society (EAWLS) and with the African Conservation Centre (ACC) to implement the community capacity building component of USAID/Kenya's larger Conservation of Resources through Enterprise (CORE) program. CORE includes a coalition of Kenyan government agencies, PVOs and private partners implementing closely coordinated activities to improve conservation and management of natural resources while increasing benefits to communities and landowners in critical areas near and around parks and reserves. To this end CORE's objectives are to:

• increase socioeconomic benefits to landowners and communities through nature-based businesses
• promote relevant policies, legislation and tools to encourage community incentives for wildlife conservation
• increase the size and visibility of the domestic constituency for conservation
• increase local capacity to conserve and manage natural resources and wildlife outside target parks and reserves

Pact's approach

The Pact team is responsible for developing the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) to engage in conservation efforts and for the reinforcement of communications and networking among CBOs and other environmental actors to encourage wildlife advocacy. Specifically, Pact is providing training and technical assistance to improve governance and financial accountability and transparency of CBOs to work successfully together in identifying and implementing wildlife-related enterprises and to help CBOs map information needs, resources, means and flows in their regions, share best practices in information sharing, and develop a vision for a nationwide CBO network. Pact is also helping to establish and support improved environmental coordination through the strengthening of the National Landowners Wildlife Forum (NWLF) as a lobbying force for harmonious biodiversity policies.

The original strategy was expanded in 2001 to include capacity-building activities that support community-based natural resource planning and monitoring. Additional activities were introduced to build the capacity of district level for associations working in the five focal areas to operate organizationally as membership organizations and to manage operational and/or activity implementation grants effectively. Pact provides subaward support through an NRM grant fund.

Pact's partnership with the East Africa Wildlife Society (EAWLS) and the African Conservation Centre (ACC) advances CORE goals by facilitating activities in organizational capacity assessment (OCA) and capacity-building in advocacy, networking and communication. EAWLS is leading implementation of OCA activities in the focal areas of Taita-Taveta and South Coast, and will provide general support for other focal areas, such as Laikipia and Amboseli in OCAs for CBOs, as well as enhance CBO capacity for networking and advocacy. At the same time, ACC is focusing its organizational development activities for effective and efficient CBOs in the Masasai Mara. Under the program expansion, ACC will also build a multidisciplinary NRM planning team that will strengthen the capacity of CBOs in all focal areas to develop collaborative, integrated community NRM plans.

Some key results

• The capacity of six CBOs has been strengthened to conserve and manage natural resources in six separate conservation areas. The CBOs are legally responsible for protecting 52,036 hectares and have placed 124,000 hectares under improved natural resource management.
• Pact launched/improved 17 community-based conservation enterprises and spin-offs,providing significant strengthening support services, including support in planning, marketing and operations, and organization of equitable social and financial benefits to community shareholders.
• Pact increased the size and visibility of the domestic constituency for conservation amongst the Kenyan citizenry establishing a network of over 100 nature-based CBOs for information exchange and building advocacy skills within CBOs, wildlife forums, and associations.
• Pact supported creation of the first functional national level wildlife conservation constituency group (KWWG) and advanced five regional wildlife forums. Together these organizations represent, either directly or indirectly, the interests of more than 150,000 Kenyan citizens.
• Pact improved knowledge among natural resource CBOs, publishing the CORENet newsletter, enhancing information exchange among the nature-ase CBOs.
• Pact helped to establish or strengthened 30 wildlife enterprises through capacity building, training and small grants, with over US$ 0.5 million generated through wages and dividends. These enterprises have benefited directly or indirectly around 51,500 stakeholders.
• A new tracking system for parks was developed and a uniform reporting system created.
• 320 Kenyan Wildlife Services staff were trained in monitoring and evaluation concepts.
• Seven wildlife forums' were strengthened in their capacity to run advocacy programs and 91 capacity building organizations built skills in networking and communication.
• Five capacity building organizations in natural resource management received intensive capacity development in managing resource use and implementation of integrated natural resource management plans.
• 295 Km of innovative fencing in target areas was established to reduce animal/human conflicts.
• Social and biophysical monitoring databases on rhino, human wildlife conflict, and land use were improved and training provided in database development.
• Twelve partnerships were established between communities and the private sector.
• Eighteen conservation tools were utilized in the areas of agro-forestry and terracing.
• Regional and community wildlife forums provided public views and comments on wildlife policies and legislations