Conservation

Central Kenya has been hard-hit by drought, political maneuvering, and land-use issues as northern herders have brought livestock to the area, looking for pasture and water. But many are also bringing illegal firearms, resulting in violence and a recent government [...]

Jill spoke with VOA’s Shaka Ssali about the ongoing drought and violence in Central Kenya.

Violence has subsided in rural central Kenya as a result of rainfall, national security operations, and elections that ousted some politicians blamed for inciting pastoralists to bring their livestock onto private lands. However, the northern rangelands, home of the pastoralists, remain overgrazed, and need proper management to keep problems at bay.

To send a message to the world that ivory is worth more on an elephant than it is in the market, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to the country’s ivory stockpile, making it the largest ivory burn in history [...]

Attended and supported by three African presidents, a three-day anti-poaching summit concluded in Kenya, resulting in $5 million in pledges and a united message to the world that elephants are worth more alive than dead. The summit culminated at the [...]

The annual CITES conference opens Saturday in South Africa. The global conservation body is expected to make a determination on whether African countries should destroy seized ivory or be allowed to sell it to fund conservation efforts. The question has [...]

Elephant crop-raiding continues to be a major source of human-wildlife conflict in Kenya, so one elephant researcher is helping to alleviate the problem near Tsavo East National Park with beehive fences, which use elephants’ natural aversion to bees to deter [...]