Kenya Wildlife Service To Issue Conservation Bond

Coastweek
September 17, 2010

Kenya still faces under investment in its national parks
which has limited its ability to earn from premium-paying
tourists and has left the wildlife vulnerable to poachers

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya Wildlife Services, the state agency in charge of national wildlife parks that are the major tourist attraction, has announced plans to issue a conservation bond next year to increase investments in the parks.

“What we essentially need to establish is a stream of income to pay for the bond.

“And we have tourism earnings that we can use to secure and pay the loans,” said Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) Director Julius Kipng’etich.

Kenya’s tourism earnings rose to 1.1 billion million U.S. dollars in 2009 from 98 million dollars in 2008, helped by a 30 per cent rise in arrivals, said the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB), making tourism the third largest foreign exchange earner after horticulture and tea exports.

This year, KTB has already reported a major surge in visitors with the number total visitors for 2009 having visited by end of June this year.

Kenya however still faces under investment in its national parks which has limited its ability to earn from premium-paying tourists and has left the wildlife vulnerable to poachers.

Road sometimes become impassable in the heavy rains limiting wildlife sight-seeing excursions while lack of security fencing leaves the animals to venture out of the game parks to attack human leading to human-wildlife conflicts.

The money from the bond will be used to improve road networks in the national parks, fund community conservation projects, and establish secure security systems within the parks to end poaching.

KWS will effectively become the first government agency to issue a bond in Kenya, whose bond market is dominated by government papers for budget support and infrastructure development and the ten corporate bonds.

The motivation to raise additional cash for conservation is based on the need for Kenya to promote alternative use of land away from agriculture which has had mixed blessings in improving livelihoods.

Land targeted for conservation farming is mostly semi-arid, receiving less rainfall than Kenya’s highlands where most of the food and cash crop agriculture happens.

KWS said conservation as a business can earn communities natural capital, and examples in group ranches has showed that this model of business is possible.

Kenya has 17 group ranches that are managed by communities, stretching from Samburu, Isiolo and Garrissa.

The bond that has been proposed by KWS will also be used to add capacity of communities to set up such ecological lodges and ranches that attract premium-paying visitors.
 
Existing ranches are premium destinations because of the biodiversity conservation programs and therefore charge premiums prices for their services, benefiting the local communities directly.

Article at:  http://www.coastweek.com/3338-23.htm