A ranger on patrol in Sera Conservancy encounters a herd of elephants. He is equipped to safeguard wildlife from poachers and others who intend to harm protected natural resources.
Photo by Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI, courtesy of Northern Rangelands Trust
Kenya is home to some of the world’s most celebrated wildlife—elephant, lion, rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, hippopotamus, and many more. To appreciate the environment’s impact on life in Kenya, consider how various Kenyan communities live and work with wild animals.
Even though the national parks protect some of the most important and beautiful wildlife habitat in the country, most of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside park boundaries. Accordingly, the people who live and work in villages and towns shared with lions or elephants face special challenges and must find creative solutions.
An aerial view of a traditional boma used by communities in northern Kenya shows a simple brush barricade surrounding the area to keep herd animals and people safely inside and wildlife out.
Photo by Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI, courtesy of Northern Rangelands Trust
Successful wildlife management requires multiple strategies. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which manages the national parks, is on the front line of many critical law enforcement issues, such as combating poaching. Truly effective wildlife conservation and management also requires the cooperation and engagement of private reserves and local communities. In some regions, traditional beliefs about wildlife and natural resource use also can conflict with more centralized planning priorities.
Kenya is not alone in facing these challenges, but the importance of its wildlife makes the stories of the people who actually coexist with wildlife in many ways worth exploring.
From the Festival
On the opening day of the Festival, Kenyan participants built a Borana hut, a traditional structure used by members of the Borana community who live a life of semi-nomadic pastoralism in Kenya’s northern rangelands.
Photo by Joe Furgal, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Officials from the U.S. National Park Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, and National Museums of Kenya sign a sister park agreement between Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho, Sibiloi National Park in northern Kenya, and National Museums of Kenya to promote international cooperation and collaboration. This was the first time the NPS had established a sister park agreement with an African nation.
Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Omar Godana Dida, finance chairman of the Nasuula Conservancy, talks with a visitor in front of a Borana hut.
Photo by Brian Barger, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Members of the Northern Rangelands Trust, an organization made up of community conservancies, relax outside the newly constructed Borana hut.
Photo by Josh Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Basket weavers from northern Kenya benefit communities and wildlife through the production and sale of their craft.
Photo by Benita Mayo, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
The Living and Working with Wildlife area includes a Kenya Wildlife Service-style base camp with a ranger’s tent, complete with rescue gear, survival kit, and GPS equipment, as well as materials that explain the work of the KWS and the Hagerman Fossil Beds of the U.S. National Park Service.
Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
A ranger talks with visitors about Kenya’s efforts to maintain and protect the country’s wildlife.
Photo by Maggie Pelta-Pauls, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Josephine Ekiru, a conservationist with the Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy, participates in a discussion about wildlife and community on the Boma Stage.
Photo by Josh Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
A crowd watches a video feed from a watering hole at the Mpala Research Centre while Valerie May, executive producer of Mpala Live!, provides an explanation.
Photo by Pruitt Allen, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
A young visitor interacts with a Maasai participant.
Photo by Bea Ugolini, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
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