Achim
Steiner Backs Kenya Tourist Board and Kenya
Wildlife Service Push at Berlin Tourism
Fair
Berlin/Nairobi, 6 March 2008-Tourism can
play a key role in restoring economic activity
and employment in Kenya and in doing so
play its part in bringing peace and stability
to the East African country, the head of
the UN Environment Programme(UNEP)said today.
Achim Steiner, UNEP's
Executive Director was speaking on the eve
of his departure to Berlin, Germany which
this week is hosting one of the world's
biggest tourism fairs.
"Tourism, based
in the main around Kenya's fabled wildlife
and natural landscapes has historically
been a centre-piece of the economy and for
job creation. The income generated is also
vital for the country's conservation effort
and for maintaining Kenya's important network
of National Parks and other protected areas,"
said Mr Steiner.
"Sadly visitor
numbers have crashed since the post-election
instability of late December 2007, 25,000
people directly employed in tourism related
industries and countless more indirectly
employed have been laid off and revenues
to parks and reserves have plummeted putting
at risk countless conservation initiatives
carried out by the Kenya Wildlife Service
and others," he said.
"The newly signed
peace agreement, brokered by former UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan and his team, now provides
an opportunity to bring stability to Kenya
and its people. Tourism can play a central
role in this. In doing so, it can also play
an important role in conserving important
wildlife and ecosystems from charismatic
creatures like elephants and rhino to whale
sharks and some of the most dense and diverse
birdlife on the planet," said Mr Steiner,
also a UN Under-Secretary General.
According to official
statistics, to be presented in Berlin this
week by the Kenya delegation, 2007 saw a
record number of over a million international
tourists arrive in the country by air and
by sea?a rise of 10 per cent over 2006.
But since the disputed
election result in December 2007, numbers
have fallen precipitously and it is forecast
that an average of 9,000 visitors will come
each month over the first quarter of 2008?a
drop of over 90 per cent and an expected
loss of 5.5 billion Kenya shillings.
Conservation Challenges
from Revenue Declines
The Kenya Wildlife Service,
which last year posted record revenues of
$28 million, is also suffering and an order
for over 200 vehicles needed for anti-poaching
patrols and other important conservation
work has just been shelved.
The decline in tourism-related
revenues may also damage important conservation
work according to experts.
These include a captive
black rhino breeding programme launched
six months ago aimed at boosting the number
of animals to 700 in five years, up from
540 now.
Wide-spread poaching
reduced the country's rhino population from
an estimated 20,000 in the 1970s to below
350. But anti-poaching and other initiatives
including rhino sanctuaries have brought
the number back up to around 540.
Other pioneering initiatives
that may be at risk include community projects,
species translocation schemes and one to
test new ideas to reduce human-animal conflicts
in and around the Amboseli National Park,
home to some 1,500 elephants.
These include chili
tobacco ropes which can help deter elephants
from spoiling farmland, simple but ingenious
alarm systems for farmers using trip wires
that ring bicycle bells in the farm house
and fireworks that can scare animals away.
Mr Steiner said: "Indeed
it is an overall measure of KWS's success
that elephant populations in Kenya have
risen recently by four per cent following
years of successful anti-poaching and other
management. This rise comes at the very
moment when revenues are suddenly suffering
as a result of the post-election crisis".
Wider Environmental
Impacts
The African Wildlife
Foundation is also concerned about the impact
of falling tourist numbers on a strong of
recently established conservancies.
The case of the Ol Pejata
Conservancy in Laikipia underlines the challenge.
Established in 2004, it is the largest private
run conservation project for the Black Rhino
in Africa with 77 animals.
Richard Vigne, the Conservancy's
chief executive officer, said the project
employed 600 people many of whom are drawn
from the local community.
He said running a conservancy
with rhino cost 2.5 times the cost of managing
the same area of land without the animals.
Mr Vigne said the decline
in tourism was affecting some 60 per cent
of the not-for-profit conservancy's revenue
alongside important community outreach.
Ol Pejata has raised
over $1 million for local community work
over the past three years from donors and
there is concern that future support may
now be at risk.
Notes to Editors
Around 8% of Kenya's land area is held in
protected areas. Nairobi National Park (117
square km) was the first to be established
in 1947.
Kenya Wildlife Service
is a State agency mandated to preserve Kenya's
wildlife and its habitat and display it
in its natural form. Kenya depends on non
consumptive uses of wildlife resources especially
in the form of tourism.
In the financial year
2006/2007, tourism accounted for 20 per
cent of government income. Under Kenya's
Vision 2030 economic blueprint to make the
county a middle level economy, tourism will
play a central role. Wildlife based tourism
accounts for about 75 per cent of all tourist
visitors to Kenya.
Kenya's wildlife plays
a central role in the economy, especially
in the support of livelihoods. KWS manages
four of the country's five major water towers,
the sources of hydroelectric power, protects
fish breeding sites, protects forests which
are a source of rain for agriculture, protects
invaluable biodiversity in protected areas
Tourism is also the
main source of revenue for Kenya Wildlife
Service (Statistics attached).The revenue
is used to manage wildlife, its habitat,
and wildlife research, support community
projects, among other activities.
Recently, the General
Election dispute in Kenya caused a sudden
drop in tourism activities in national parks
and reserves by about 80 per cent.
UNEP's work on tourism is carried out through
its Sustainable Production and Consumption
Branch http://www.unep.fr/pc/tourism/home.htm
For More Information Contact Nick Nuttall,
UNEP Spokesperson
Anne-France White, Associate Information
Officer
