A community game scout programme has been
operating in the greater Mara for a number of years,
with
funding and support provided by a variety of
sources (including Friends of Conservation and the
Durrell
Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)). In
2005, the programme employed around 75 scouts
across
the greater Mara area. More recently, the
programme has been complemented by the community
game
scout network established by the Mara Conservancy
and the Anne K. Taylor Fund (now under the
management
of the Mara Conservancy), which has focused on
covering the areas of Trans Mara District that
border the Mara Triangle. These community scouts
have proved beneficial to MMNR management by
enabling
a variety of issues that have in the past
inhibited the development of strong and constructive
relations
with the community to be addressed more
effectively. These include improving response times to
humanwildlife
conflict and incidences of banditry (in particular
cattle theft), enhancing the flow of information
between
management and communities, and generally
improving the relationship between MMNR
managers
and adjacent communities. In view of the past
success of this mechanism for enhancing
managementcommunity
relations, this action focuses on further
strengthening the community game scout network
in
the greater Mara.
Although the Mara Conservancy has an established
and effective network of community scouts, this is
not
the case in areas neighbouring the Narok section
of the Reserve, where there is a loose collection of
scouts
that are either volunteers or have been recruited
by different organisations, often with different
institutional
priorities (such as focusing on monitoring
wildlife as opposed to linking MMNR managers and
adjacent
communities). Poor coordination of this ad
hoc scout network and weak links between them and
MMNR
managers has undermined their overall contribution
to MMNR management, and their ability to
strengthen
relations between managers and communities. To
address these issues, MMMR management will take
steps
to duplicate and extend the existing Mara
Conservancy community scout network to cover the
areas
neighbouring the Narok section of the Reserve.
This will involve either directly employing new
community
scouts, or formalising the employment of any
existing volunteer scouts. Once recruited, appropriate
training
(either in-situ “on-the-job”
and/or ex-situ courses) will then be provided to all scouts to
ensure that they have
the necessary skills to carry out their duties.
This may require capacity building in conservation
awareness
raising, case reporting on human
wildlife-conflict, and bush skills, and will need to be
complemented by the
provision of the equipment necessary to support
their roles (most notably communication equipment,
such
as handheld radios).
On a longer-term basis, MMNR management will also
support efforts to enhance the coordination of
community
game scouts through the establishment of the
proposed Masai Mara Community Scouts
Association.
This association is likely to fulfil similar roles
to the nascent Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association,
and
has the potential to provide significant support
to MMNR management by streamlining management
community communications throughout the ecosystem,
and reducing any overlap and redundancy that
exists
in the current game scout
programmes.
