The First Annual Stakeholder Forum for the Inclusive Conservation Initiative in Kenya
Across the Mid-Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin of Kenya, the Indigenous rights organization, IMPACT (est. 2002), is leveraging funds from the GEF-7 Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI) to support the self-strengthening of Indigenous communities to do conservation according to their own knowledge, values, priorities, and aspirations.
As ICI’s first year in Kenya concluded in June 2024, an inaugural Annual Stakeholder Forum was held from July 24-26 at Beisa Hotel and Conference Centre in Nanyuki. The objectives of the Forum were to: update conservation stakeholders in the Mid-Ewaso’s conservation space on ICI; share highlights and lessons learned from Year 1; and spearhead wider dialogue about what inclusive conservation should look like in this part of Kenya, where less inclusive approaches to conservation have secured a foothold.
Year 1 of ICI Kenya in review
The name of the ICI subproject in Kenya is, Uhifadhi wa Kiasili | Ramat Ang’ | Ayuokor | Horsa Bulcha. This roughly translates to “Inclusive Conservation” in the main languages spoken within the Mid-Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin: Swahili, Maa, Turkana, and Borana.
Year 1 of Inclusive Conservation focused on two key activities, following a period of initial Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) among participating communities. From there, Inclusive Conservation collaborated with 22 communities across the Mid-Ewaso to develop biocultural maps and calendars. These maps and calendars depicted the historical and present-day extents of communities’ biocultural territories. They also documented vital information about how Indigenous Peoples’ cultural practices contribute to the sustainable use and protection of biodiversity – as well as land and water resources – in the region.
A second related activity during Year 1 involved documenting cultural keystone species. This was done to provide further information beyond biocultural maps and calendars, identifying which domestic and wild species hold the greatest significance for each community, and exploring how these species have been conserved and sustainably used over time.
Photo 2 & 3: Key Informant Interviews with Traditional Knowledge Holders in Shulmai Community – Through the cultural keystone species exercise, similarities and differences emerged. Greatest emphasis was placed on species such as Vachelia tortillis (Oltepes in Maa) and Ficus thonningii (Oreteti in Maa), reticulated giraffe (Sotowa in Borana) and ostrich (Ekalees in Turkana), and cattle and sheep
Importantly, these activities will form the basis of biocultural protocols, management plans, demonstration projects, and Indigenous knowledge hubs to be developed in subsequent years of Inclusive Conservation.
Why inclusive conservation?
The world faces a deepening biodiversity crisis. Recognition of this crisis has led to massive, coordinated efforts to halt and reverse the decline of species and ecosystem health at a global scale. The new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is one of the most significant mobilizing forces behind these efforts. This includes the GBF’s 30X30 agenda, which aims to conserve 30 percent of the planet by 2030. To support this goal, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is working to raise the US $200 billion pledged at COP-15 in 2022 to help achieve the 30X30 target.
It is in this global context that the imperative for inclusive conservation has become undeniable. For one, most of the planet’s biodiversity is found within Indigenous territories. This is no coincidence, as Indigenous ways of living in with nature have proven more sustainable over time than those of other societies. Thus, ensuring that Indigenous Peoples have control over what is conserved, where, and how could lead to significant progress in slowing down biodiversity loss. Historically, Indigenous Peoples have also long been excluded from and/or harmed by mainstream conservation models, which often prioritize separate people from nature to secure wildlife habitats and monopolize the rights to access, use, and profit from nature in the name of conservation. Halting and reversing declines in biodiversity and ecosystem health also requires efforts to redress injustices and violences against Indigenous Peoples and restore their rights to self-determination.
Why inclusive conservation in Kenya?
The Mid-Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin is a microcosm of these global realities. Prior to colonization, its ecosystems and landscapes were shaped by interactions between diverse species, including domesticated animals, and the sociocultural and livelihood practices of different pastoralist societies. With colonization and settler colonial occupation in the 19th and 20th centuries, landscapes in the Mid-Ewaso were violently cleared of Indigenous Peoples, their domesticated animals, and wildlife; partitioned according to commercially productive and unproductive zones; and segregated according to race, species (i.e. of livestock), and land use and tenure systems.
Then, in the 1980s/90s and 2000s respectively, “new” conservation models entered the scene that allowed for wildlife to be conserved on private and community land, rather than just national parks and reserves. Once again, Indigenous Peoples in the Mid-Ewaso found themselves both excluded from their natural heritage and left to navigate external models that yielded few or unreliable tangible benefits.
In Kenya, community-based models have sometimes shown progress in addressing historical patterns of exclusion, inequality, and marginalization faced by Indigenous Peoples. Yet, ultimately, this progress tends to come from bringing Indigenous peoples into mainstream conservation models, rather than reorganizing conservation around the knowledge, values, and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples.
What’s next for “Inclusive Conservation”
Inclusive Conservation is working to reverse this trend by prioritizing the self-strengthening and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples as a central focus of its mission. ICI asserts that Indigenous Peoples have valuable knowledge about what in the landscape needs to be conserved, and how, to maximize biological and cultural (biocultural) diversity.
ICI’s role in the process is facilitating a series of different measures that, ultimately, are directed by and belong to Indigenous communities. These include:
- Documenting the presence of Indigenous Peoples in the landscape, including contributions made to biocultural diversity over time
- Promoting ongoing legal declaration and recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ territories and biocultural resources
- Ensuring management plans exist that include measures for conserving biocultural diversity and protecting biocultural resources from external threats
- Monitoring and evaluating biocultural conservation according to culturally appropriate systems and indicators
- Continuing self-strengthening, communication, and advocacy for Indigenous self-determination in conservation
By respecting what communities already know about conservation and supporting communities in applying this knowledge according to their own values and aspirations, these measures can make significant contributions to restoring and conserving biocultural diversity in the Mid-Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin and beyond.
Moving forward – together
Photo 4: The 1st Annual Stakeholders Forum 2024 held at the Beisa Hotel and Conference Centre in Nanyuki, Laikipia.
Insomuch as ICI centres Indigenous self-strengthening and self-determination, the Initiative does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. Rather, it requires collaboration with other actors in the landscape who can offer capacity building and training opportunities, as well as unique advice and skillsets, identified by communities as needed to pursue their own visions for their biocultural resources and territories.
The Annual Stakeholder Forum was one of the first major events to bring together a critical mass of stakeholders from across the Mid-Ewaso Ng’iro River Basin in the name of inclusive conservation. Recognizing the significance of this event, participants seized the opportunity to collectively draft a Manifesto for Inclusive Conservation. Future Annual Forums will continue to provide a platform for dialogue and foster solidarity in the pursuit of transformative, widespread inclusive conservation.
If you wish to contact the ICI Kenya team, please see the “Author Bios” section below.
Additional Resources
A Manifesto for Inclusive Conservation (forthcoming)
Inclusive Conservation Initiative Kenya: 2024 Annual Report (forthcoming)
Author Bios
Vivian Silole, William Naimado, Joseph Larpei, Judy Arbele, Victorlyn Mukiri, Karaine Masikonte, Charis Enns, Brock Bersaglio
Contact information
Vivian Silole, Project Manager: resilience2@impactkenya.org
Malih Ole Kaunga, IMPACT Kenya Director: olekanuga@gmail.com
Karionga Village
Jua Kali Centre – Nanyuki
P.O. BOX 499 – 10400
Nanyuki
+25 (472)-454-0669
+25 (472)-266-3090
