Connectivity in National Policies: Kenya

Kenya’s approach to conserving free-ranging wildlife relies on enabling their unrestricted movement across protected areas and other government, private, and community-managed lands. Nearly 65 percent of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside protected areas, which constitute only 12 percent of the country. Non-state-owned protected areas, called wildlife conservancies, constitute nearly 16 percent of Kenya’s land and are largely located in wildlife corridors, dispersal areas, or breeding grounds. As defined under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013, the concept of a wildlife conservancy empowers communities and landowners to be stewards of wildlife conservation, given adequate policy support.

However, the compounding impacts of climate change and land use change is fragmenting critical habitats. The rapid expansion of agriculture and high-density settlements, in addition to other factors such as mining and poaching, continue to jeopardize the integrity and connectivity of landscapes.

A key aspect of Kenya’s ongoing connectivity efforts involves community-based conservation and monitoring wildlife movements. The system of laws and policies that support these efforts in connectivity and conservation include:

• The Constitution of Kenya: Kenya’s revised 2010 Constitution introduces changes relevant to the management of ecological corridors and protected areas, including the decentralization of governance to 47 county governments. These counties are responsible for developing Integrated Development and Physical Plans, which are nominally important for corridor and habitat conservation on private and community lands.
• Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (2013): This foundational legislation promotes decentralized wildlife governance, adopts an ecosystem approach, and recognizes wildlife conservation as a formal land-use with benefit-sharing for conservation directed to land users. Key provisions include:
  • Section 3: Defines “corridor” as areas facilitating periodic wildlife migration;
  • Section 5: Provides that national strategies must include innovative schemes and incentives for securing key migratory routes, corridors, and dispersal areas;
  • Section 35: Allows declaration of any county land as a national reserve if it is an important wildlife buffer or zone, corridor, migration route, or dispersal area;
  • Section 38: Authorizes land acquisition for declaration as national parks, wildlife corridors, or dispersal areas; and
  • Section 65: Provides for conservation orders and easements to “create or maintain migration corridors and dispersal areas for wildlife.”
• National Wildlife Conservation and Management Policy (2018): This policy employs a cross-sectoral strategy to sustainably manage Kenya’s wildlife through effective, equitable, ecologically representative, and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. Section 5.2(e) mandates the government to link parks, reserves, and sanctuaries by gazetting migratory corridors that connect dispersal and protected areas.
• Kenya Vision 2030: Wildlife Migratory Corridors and Dispersal Areas: This report supports community-based conservation and focuses on the identification of wildlife hotspots to boost their connectivity and enhance ecological integrity of habitats. The Vision also calls for wildlife research stations to be refurbished and equipped, establishes a national wildlife database, and enhances ecological monitoring programs for all protected areas.
• State Department for Wildlife’s Strategic Plan (2023–2027): The Plan focuses on prioritizing ecosystem restoration, afforestation, and creation of wildlife corridors in line with Kenya Vision 2030. It aims to increase the number of secured migratory corridors/dispersal areas from one in 2021 to five in 2027. Tasks include updating the 2017 Wildlife Migratory Routes and Dispersal Areas Report and promoting corridor and dispersal area management for tourism and biodiversity.
• The Intergovernmental Relations Act (2012): The Act mandates cooperation between national and county governments for the preservation of natural resources, including wildlife. Such collaboration is critical for connectivity conservation and encourages the harmonization of conservation policies across jurisdictions.
• National Human-Wildlife Coexistence Strategy and Action Plan (2024–2033)This strategy prioritizes prompt gazettement of key wildlife corridors and dispersal areas, completion of ecosystem and county spatial plans, and strengthened conservancy initiatives to expand wildlife habitats and benefit landowners. It also promotes cost-effective human-wildlife conflict mitigation via fencing, vigilance, and wildlife-friendly practices. Securing migration corridors and dispersal areas features prominently in several Chapter 13 Action Plans.

Kenya has a strong legislative and policy framework, with decentralized planning that integrates connectivity conservation and other area-based conservation measures to protect dispersal and breeding grounds. Strong implementation will be critical to produce and maintain conservation outcomes in the face of rapid fragmentation pressures.

Please note: This digest is intended to provide up-to-date information on policy development from a neutral, unaffiliated position as it relates to connectivity and corridor science and management.

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