Collaboration and Partnerships
Strengthen relationships with stakeholders and partners
Enhance engagements with communities, county governments, and other government agencies, media, customers, development partners, private sector, researchers and other Stakeholders
Build partnerships to support conservation and reduce human wildlife conflict and other threats / challenges.
Engage the public, youth and communities through education and outreach
Parks are a choice of land use, and therefore local people need to benefit from their existence in order to value them. Our stakeholders and partners play a huge role in helping us to achieve our mandate. We will work with partners and stakeholders to meet the current and emerging challenges in wildlife conservation. These include individuals, Companies, Donors, civil society, researchers, communities, private and community conservancies, schools and other institutions of learning, development partners, multilateral environment agreement secretariats, tour operators and aviation industry.
We work with the national Government to carry forth its environmental, economic and security obligations by ensuring that wildlife and its habitats are sustainably conserved, managed and protected. We work together with county governments to facilitate the utilisation of natural resources in the form of tourism, protection of water catchment areas, habitats, and promotion of culture, science and aesthetics. We will make every interaction with our international and local partners one that is accountable and yields results.
KWS provides a multitude of benefits to surrounding communities including establishing mechanisms where local people can engage with the park and ensure their interests are considered in management decisions. We construct schools and provide educational support in the belief that education will always reap long-term societal dividends, and we facilitate enterprise development that enhances sustainable livelihoods. It is these efforts that help to build a critical constituency for conservation, and will ensure the long-term survival of these protected areas.
Over the last few decades, conservationists have come to understand just how central community involvement is to wildlife conservation success—and how important it is for communities to actively steward the natural resources around them to improve economic and social well-being. KWS community-based conservation work today reflects this fundamental reality. We work across a variety of communities and customize our work based on the specific needs and interests of a given place, taking into consideration each region’s particular set of conservation assets and challenges.
The success or failure of a park is largely dependent on whether the local people, the communities that live on the periphery or within the park, support its protection and overall existence. For people to want to protect something, they need to understand the purpose, and the best way of understanding protected area management is if they value or benefit from it.
KWS works to position conservation as a competitive land use that delivers benefits to local communities and enhances the financial sustainability of the parks. In order to do this, we must unlock the economic potential of the parks by establishing a conservation-led economy that creates jobs, stimulates local micro-enterprise development, promotes local procurement, develops skills and knowledge and ultimately improves livelihoods in the region. We support small enterprises that create local products; and we planted over 42,000 tree saplings in 2016 alone to reduce dependency on natural resources, unlocking commercial opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
We understand specific community needs and work closely with members to make sure they get direct benefits from conserving wildlife and protecting natural habitat. While our education outreach programs help locals to reduce human-wildlife conflict, we also implement projects that create a positive impact for the entire community. AWF has helped communities lease their land to develop conservancies or wildlife management areas. We also help farming communities explore sustainable agriculture, growing their income and reducing pressure on living and natural resources.
When you support KWS, your donation supports the parks and does so much more than just saving wildlife; your gift is a lifeline for people living in these areas as well.
