This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Laikipia Wildlife Forum | |
|---|---|
| Name | Laikipia Wildlife Forum |
| Formation | 1995 |
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Headquarters | Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya |
| Region served | Laikipia Plateau |
Laikipia Wildlife Forum is a conservation-focused network based on the Laikipia Plateau in central Kenya that coordinates landowners, pastoralists, conservationists, researchers, and tourism operators to protect biodiversity. The Forum operates within a landscape that includes protected areas, ranches, community conservancies, and private forests, interacting with stakeholders from across East Africa. It connects conservation practice with pastoral livelihoods, scientific research, and regional policy processes.
The Forum was established in 1995 following regional dialogues involving IUCN, BirdLife International, World Wide Fund for Nature, and Kenyan conservationists responding to wildlife decline after the post-colonial land reforms and the 1990s droughts. Early meetings included representatives from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, United States Agency for International Development, Fauna & Flora International, and local ranching families with links to Ol Jogi, Lewa Conservancy, Borana Conservancy and community groups from Samburu County. Over time the Forum engaged with national institutions such as the Kenya Wildlife Service and provincial administrations during the era of the Constitution of Kenya (2010) devolution reforms. Major milestones included community conservancy formation influenced by models from Mara Conservancy and collaborative anti-poaching initiatives responding to transnational ivory trafficking linked to networks reaching Nairobi and international markets.
The Forum’s mission emphasizes landscape-scale conservation bridging private ranches, community lands, and protected areas to sustain wildlife populations including African elephant, African lion, black rhinoceros, grevy's zebra, and migratory birds such as Lesser flamingo and African fish eagle. Objectives include promoting community conservancies, mitigating human-wildlife conflict involving species like spotted hyena and reticulated giraffe, advancing habitat restoration in montane forests like Mount Kenya and Aberdare Range, and supporting sustainable tourism operations drawing on models from Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Masai Mara operators. The Forum also prioritizes policy engagement on land tenure influenced by the Land Registration Act (Kenya) and pastoralist rights seen in debates involving Isiolo County and Marsabit County.
Governance combines a board of trustees and a secretariat with membership drawn from ranchers, private conservancies, community leaders, NGOs, and academic partners from institutions like University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Oxford University and University of Leicester. Membership categories mirror structures used by networks such as Northern Rangelands Trust and Kenya Land Alliance, and include representatives from commercial tourism operators affiliated with Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers and pastoralist associations connected to Maasai elders and Samburu councils. Funding oversight aligns with practices recommended by Charity Commission for England and Wales and donor reporting standards used by Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation.
Programs address species protection, habitat connectivity, water security, and anti-poaching. Species initiatives draw on translocation and monitoring protocols similar to work at Nairobi National Park and Tsavo National Park and focus on flagship species including black rhinoceros and African wild dog. Habitat programs implement corridor projects linking highland catchments such as Mount Kenya to lowland rangelands, drawing on hydrology studies used by UNEP and restoration techniques promoted by IUCN Red List assessments. Law enforcement collaborations involve partnerships with Interpol-assisted networks combating wildlife crime and regional efforts aligned with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora obligations.
The Forum supports community conservancy development modeled on successes by Lewisia Conservancy and Northern Rangelands Trust, promotes pastoralist enterprise diversification with links to Heifer International and microfinance strategies reminiscent of Kiva partnerships, and advances human-wildlife conflict mitigation using deterrent methods trialed in Amboseli National Park and Laikipia County projects. Programmatic work includes revenue-sharing schemes tied to tourism operators like andBeyond and Elewana Collection, craft-market initiatives similar to Maasai Market frameworks, and training in rangeland management influenced by International Livestock Research Institute research.
Research collaborations involve universities and research centers including National Museums of Kenya, WildCRU, Smithsonian Institution, and Zoological Society of London for long-term monitoring of populations and disease ecology such as lumpy skin disease and rabies. Citizen science and education programs parallel outreach by Kenya Wildlife Trust and school conservation curricula used by Roots & Shoots, engaging local schools and teacher training linked to Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. Data management follows protocols compatible with Global Biodiversity Information Facility standards and remote-sensing applications employed by NASA and European Space Agency.
The Forum’s partnerships span multilateral agencies like UNDP and World Bank, bilateral donors such as USAID and DFID (now Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), conservation NGOs including Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, and private-sector alliances with safari operators, ranching syndicates, and philanthropic foundations like Omidyar Network and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Funding mechanisms combine grant agreements, tourism revenue-sharing, carbon finance explorations aligned with Reductions in Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation pilots, and payment for ecosystem services models trialed in East African landscapes.
Category:Conservation organizations based in Kenya