Park Management & infrastructure
Investment in National Parks
Good governance is essential for our success, We create infrastructure to deliver good park management benefiting both wildlife and local communities. Properly managed parks make a direct contribution to the local and national economy
To deliver good management, tremendous infrastructure is required including installing the entire communication networks, building structures for thousands of staff, and grading thousands of kilometers of roads every year. When appropriate, perimeter fencing is installed to ensure local people are protected from conflict with wildlife
A tremendous amount of infrastructure is required in order to manage a park properly. Many parks have very limited, if any infrastructure at all, so roads, bridges, telecommunications, workshops, headquarters and staff housing often need to be built from scratch. Fencing is also an important part of infrastructural development, particularly when there is a hard boundary between the park and the community, and the park is home to animals which could have a negative impact on the lives of local people – such as predators who feed off livestock and elephants who raid crops. In these circumstances, fences are critically important – not to keep communities out, but to keep animals in.
Roads infrastructure Fence and buildings
Just last year, more than 250 structures have been built including offices, houses, and operation rooms, and 1,525 km of roads have been maintained across the parks. More than 143 km of electrified perimeter fencing has been installed, as a result a drastic reduction of human wildlife conflict has been noted.
Law Enforcement
The most critical and foundational component for the long-term sustainability of any park is effective law enforcement, and this is our top priority. KWS provides safety and security for each park under our management, the surrounding communities, and the broader region. If a park is to become sustainable for the long-term, the security of the parks is a prerequisite for poverty alleviation, economic development, and for providing safety for all wildlife and their habitats. Our rangers are often the only security force, not only for areas around the parks, but across entire regions, providing stability for local people across more than eight million hectares, almost doubling our impact.
The thousands of foot, horseback, boat, vehicle and aerial patrols we conduct year-round are also complemented by networks of supporting communities who provide information on poachers and other illegal activities. By supporting our law enforcement efforts, you are helping us with the most critical aspect of protecting the parks while providing security for both wildlife and to some of Africa’s most vulnerable people.
Specialized units
In unique instances, parks need the services of specialized teams to counter the most pressing threats. The parks’ "Rapid Response Units" are made up of a group of highly skilled and well-equipped individuals who are trained to respond to specific threats. Our dog unit has been established to protect endangered and heavily targeted species by poachers, in transit areas
Surveillance
Staying ahead of the curve is a critical part of park management, and given the vast landscapes our teams at KWS have to manage, all kinds of aircrafts serve as "eyes in the sky" providing the critical, real-time surveillance needed to protect the park adequately. They can also help deploy law enforcement teams, or even provide rescue operations in emergency situations, saving human lives. KWS uses modern technologies for surveillance this includes drones and gyrocopters. Surveillance is also done in marine parks to ensure the sustainability of our ecosystem.
Vet
Ensuring the health of animals is maintained
KWS Covers 8% of the total land mass in Kenya
While KWS supports an extraordinary network of protected areas, the majority are too small and unconnected, making it difficult for them to support viable populations of wildlife and sustain Africa’s unique ecosystems. Expanding parks and working with communities to set aside land for conservation ensures that wildlife has a safe place to roam. To wildlife, the concept of a national park boundary does not exist. Species frequently travel in and out of protected areas, oftentimes coming into contact with humans.
Our footprint is immense but we create a platform for the long-term future for each and every park, and the outcome is an effective management footprint ensuring accountability and transparency, good governance and donor confidence to manage protected areas and achieve results.
Managing parks takes substantial resources and across Africa, protected area authorities lack adequate resources to effectively manage protected areas. Your support towards this will go a long way in in creating the necessary infrastructure t protect our animals
Technology plays a key role in conservation and park management
By marrying our technology development and storytelling capabilities with our impact-driven Solutions, we are working to address the current threat of wildlife trafficking, while collecting data that will inform long term strategies to protect endangered species and ensure stable or thriving generations of wild animals to protect some of the world’s most endangered species, rangers need real-time information to understand and save them.
Communication and technology has been delivered and implemented across the parks to ease management. Our parks use digital radio and satellite tracker's to monitor rangers for safety and accountability purposes. Digital Radio Systems have been installed and are utilized; Spider tracks have been installed in aircrafts; Vehicle trackers have been installed in our vehicle fleets; and long range digital radio infrastructure has been installed at using modern technologies. Satellite technology is also being used to monitor the animals across the country.
KWS has installed a park monitoring and management systems. The purpose of the system is to aid real-time monitoring and awareness of what is happening in a park at any given time, to support park management and reduce the risk of poaching. Also KWS embraces modern tools to monitor and improve protected area management effectiveness and meeting conservation targets. The tool aids in improving the use and appropriation of planning monitoring-evaluation tools at the conservation area and central administration levels by focusing information on targeted decision-making. Our solutions aims to expand its reach to feature this three-pronged approach. Security, ecological monitoring and community building each take on their own value in wildlife preservation efforts, and the platform will incorporate data from all areas in order to create a holistic understanding of each site.
