NAIROBI, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- A conservationist on Friday urged Kenya to introduce endangered species act to save wildlife from extinction.
David Western, a former Director of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), said that it is critical to have laws that strengthen protection of iconic wildlife species that are critical to the growth of Kenya's economy.
"There is need to have a law to protect wildlife because they face danger from poachers and other enemies and they play an integral part in Kenya's economy," said Western when he gave a lecture on the future of Kenya's wildlife sector at the National Museum of Kenya.
Western revealed that KWS pays compensation money amounting to some 8 billion Kenyan shillings (about 80 million U.S dollars) every year for crops and livestock that are destroyed and killed by wildlife respectively.
He noted that with all the blames against wildlife whenever an incident occurs, there is need to introduce an act and insurance as an alternative to help reduce the amount paid by KWS in compensating farmers and families.
"We now require total involvement of communities as a third generation move in wildlife management having gone through first and second generation of management that involved privatization and creating laws," said Western.
The conservationist called for the repositioning of Kenya's wildlife sector to realize growth in the tourism industry.
He said that to achieve growth in the sector, the government must start mobilizing the public through wildlife clubs and also apply indigenous knowledge that embraced human and wildlife co-existence.
"We must rethink about the management of wildlife as it has a good future and can propel the country's economic growth if it is repositioned to meet the current global demand," said Western.
He noted that stakeholders in the industry need to organize competition in schools and also embark on educating the public to enable populations adore wildlife and treat them well.
He said it is important that the people who live alongside the wildlife are educated on the benefits of protecting the animals.
"They must be enlightened on why the parks must remain fenced so that they do not make attempts to invade the animals," said Western.
The conservationist observed that once the management is devolved to the grassroots, the people will know exactly how the parks work and be able to start treating wildlife with care.
He said that climate change remains another threat to the wildlife ecosystem hence the need to have resilient approach by entering into partnerships in the management of the parks. Enditem
