Challenges and Current Strategies in Biodiversity Conservation in Kenya: A Review

Kenya’s biological resources are critical in its efforts to achieve sustainable development and ensure improved living standards for its population. The country’s biological resources are diverse and include those that are found in protected areas such as game parks and game reserves, gazetted forests, non-protected areas, water bodies, coastal and marine environments, and in the ASALs. Kenya’s biodiversity strategies derive from a legal regime that includes the constitution and other legislation including both in situ and ex-situ approaches at both macro level and at sectoral levels. The country’s biodiversity conservation efforts are also anchored in domesticated international agreements and protocols that include the CBD and Nagoya Protocols. The main objective of the study was to review the status of biodiversity conservation in Kenya by considering the legal and policy frameworks as well as the main challenges the country is facing in its efforts to conserve biodiversity. Key issues identified as needing action and greater coordination include protection of gazetted forest areas, threatened, endangered and alien species and the role of indigenous knowledge systems as well as the need to improve co-ordination by implementing agencies. The country faces many challenges in its conservation efforts. These challenges arise from policy contradictions, resource constrains, increasing population that exerts pressure on biological resources and approaches that do not fully integrate communities who are custodians of these resources in their conservation. The other challenge is how local communities can access and equitably benefit from these resources. It is argued that there is a need to shift strategy and policies from their technocentric approaches to be more participatory and involve communities to own not only the conservation efforts but have increased benefit from these resources.