Tourism accommodation facilities in the MMNR have
been developed over many years, dating back to
1965
when Keekorok was established as the first lodge
in the area. All these developments have occurred on
an ad
hoc basis, without an explicit tourism
concession development process or lease procedures. This is the
same
situation as was until recently the case in most
KWS protected areas, and the end result, just like in
KWS
PAs, is a wide array of lease arrangements of
varying lengths, revenue arrangements, and other
provisions.
This disparity is particularly important with
regard lease provisions such as the bednight fees payable to
the
councils, and the “exclusion
zones” around concessions in which no other developments
are permitted. For
example, the Keekorok Lodge exclusion zone is a
radius of 16 km and allows no development of
tourism
accommodation facilities in the area, while the Ol
Kiombo exclusion zone is half this size and does
allow
development, provided that the Ol Kiombo lease
holders are given first refusal.
In the absence of a strong management plan, such
lease arrangements, however muddled, have been
instrumental
in preventing runaway development in the Reserve.
However, now that such a plan is being put into
place, the confusion and loss of vital revenues
that these ad hoc lease arrangements create, plus
the challenges
for managing the PA, argues strongly for a process
to standardise all MMNR leases in future. This will
not
only improve revenue flows to both Narok and Trans
Mara County Councils, but also enable the
optimal
placement of any new accommodation facilities or
special campsites within the Reserve.
Faced with similar problems, KWS recently embarked
on a process of standardising lease agreements
across
the network of the protected areas it manages,
either on a voluntary basis or as existing leases come up
for
renewal. Under this management action, and
building on the lessons learnt and progress made in KWS
managed
areas, a similar process will be initiated for all
leases in the MMNR. As in KWS, once a generic
standard
lease has been developed, with particular
attention given to bednight fees, exclusion zones,
environmental
mitigation measures, and any other important
factors, this will then be applied to facilities within
the
MMNR when new leases are developed, current leases
expire, or when operators agree on a voluntary
basis.
This standardisation of leases is particularly
important in the MMNR because, besides establishing a
level
playing field between investors in the Reserve,
the process could also eventually be extended with
some
modification to the wider Mara ecosystem, where
there is an even more complex and inequitable array
of
lease arrangements, with even greater negative
impacts for the local landowners.
