Poaching has reduced elephant’s population in the country from 167,000 in 1976 to 25,000 in 2013.
The executive director of Elephant Neighbours Centre Mr. Jim Nyamu said that areas affected by heavy poaching are Laikipia and Samburu. He said that the Marsabit elephant population stood at76 from previous figure of 300.
He said conflict between the animals and the community has reduced in the last three years after the private conservancies were introduced with the help of Kenya Wildlife Service’s and private partners.
Speaking on Monday when flagging of a 716 km walk to protect elephants in Isiolo, area Deputy County Commissioner Mwachaunga Chaunga said the formation of private and community conservancies has complemented the government’s effort to fight poaching.
“The conservancies helped in reducing the cases of hunting of wildlife for meat by neighbours of forests and poachers,” Chaunga said.
He added that since the government introduced compensation to people injured or killed by wildlife, and the destruction of crops, the local residents have developed the sense of protecting the wild animals.
The administrator added that the awareness created by KWS and other stakeholders had improved wildlife protection effort and the last cases of wildlife killed by herders was reported in March last year where members of the community arrested the herders and handed them over to police.