Environment and human beings are inseparable,interdependent,interrelated and thus life depends on how the two relate.As time goes by,there is a high surge in human population across the world-something that is threatening the existence of wildlife and general degradation of the environment -loss of biodiversity.This is attributed to continued encroachment of forests,water catchment areas and wildlife territories by human beings.Is there a way of putting a balance between the human needs and environment??
Wide-reaching researches carried show that still,80% of wildlife in Africa ,depend on community land for survival.This makes it very impossible to imagine that the existing conservancies,sanctuaries and National parks are enough to ensure wildlife survival and a success of conservation.However much billions of money we invest in conservation,without finding a holistic approach to it-We will never solve the puzzle of extinction that is glaring at the world.
Communities that live around the parks like our Maasai community for instance need to be empowered.There has been much neglect from the part of the government and other conservation stakeholders on the role of the communities in survival,existence of wildlife.Local people need to have basic needs like food,shelter,good access to health and education,roads and proper infrastructure.This way,the people will not to the temptation of cutting charcoal or hunting/poaching to use as an alternative of earning a living.
Sad also is the fact that due to competition for resources between locals and wildlife-Human-wildlife conflict is on the rise.For instance,pastoralists loosing their livestock to predators and farmers having crops raided by elephants.No one comes out to compensate them or offer alternative solutions to the recurring problems.
Everyone has to play a role of helping the communities stabilize their livelihoods so that there can be a collective way of approaching conservation success.As Oloimugi Maasai,the small projects we are doing like the women bead-work go a long way to address the humanitarian challenges like poverty that are a threat to conservation.We would like to have a way of empowering the community economically and through education/awareness creation.More people need to come on board to help us make the world better for the generations to come.
Shopping in our village!
