Tsavo is Kenya’s largest national park and at 20,812 square kilometres almost rivals Rwanda in its size. Home to an incredibly diverse array of landscapes and wildlife the park is unrivalled in its biodiversity.

A Difficult Past

The history of the park has not been been without its miseries. The early years of the park were marred by drought and uncontrolled poaching which devastated the areas elephant and rhino populations.

Between the 1970s and the mid 1990s the large mammals of Tsavo and across Kenya and much of Africa were killed on an unprecedented scale pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Over 90% of the country’s elephants and rhinos were wiped out over 25 years of uncontrolled poaching.

Fuelled by the market for “wild gold” or ivory in the Far East and the newly oil rich states of the Middle East Africa’s elephants and rhino underwent a systematic decimation of their numbers.

It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that the massacre was brought under control as the world woke up to the reality of a future without mega herbivores and other wildlife. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES) placed rhinos and elephants under appendix I prohibiting further trade in the animals or their products.

Kenya was one of the first nations to make a public commitment to this new era of appreciation and not exploitation of its wildlife and famously burned 12 tonnes of ivory worth $1 million in 1989.

The government also formed the Kenya Wildlife Service to manage the country’s national parks and reserves, working tirelessly to turn around the neglect and poor infrastructure of these areas and improve the working conditions of wardens and rangers.

Tsavo Today

Contemporary Tsavo is one of the last wildernessness of its size and the problems that the park faced in the 1970s continue to be a problem requiring constant vigilance, alongside these there are many new issues to contend with.

When Tsavo was formed in the 1940s the human population of Kenya was one million, compared with 40 million people today. The land bordering the park is becoming increasingly populated and human-wildlife conflict is an issue which is becoming ever more apparent as people and animals are forced into closer proximity.

Climate change, trade in arms between war torn states and the bush meat trade are all modern day concerns that have risen up and must be tackled alongside poaching.

The parks administrators recognise the need for a multi-dimensional approach to these multi-faceted problems taking place across a huge and diverse ecosystem.

Conflicting policies across state boundaries do little to help these efforts, and should “Kenyan” elephants or rhinos stray into neighbouring Tanzania there is very little protection for these animals in a country where sports hunting is allowed.

Since the beginning of this year four black rhino have already killed, a big loss for a species that plummeted from 6000 individuals before the 1970s to less than 50 and is still a long way of recovery.

Tsavo’s rhino population stands at 60 in the Ngulia sanctuary and a further 10 were recently released into the main park.

The risk posed to elephants by poaching tells the same story. Prior to the 1970s 36,000 elephants roamed across Tsavo, the drought is thought to have killed 5,900 while poachers massacred 90% of the population. Today only 6000 remain in the park and over the past year a number have been killed for their tusks.

“Dead elephants fall under three categories — those that died of natural causes and still have their tusks; those that have their tusks and notable spear wounds (indicating a human-wildlife conflict) and those that have their tusks missing — a clear case of poaching,” said Dan Woodley, Senior Warden at Tsavo.

“Previously, the tusks were not hacked off, indicating human-wildlife conflict. But now the tusks are being severed and smuggled out of the country,” he added.

What the future forecasts for Tsavo

The future of Tsavo national park depends upon a new approach to wildlife conservation, the animals and landscapes alone cannot pay for all the social needs of a rapidly growing local population.

“KWS helps in community projects bordering the parks to cater for social needs like schools, dispensaries, water and cattle dips and helps in income-generation projects like farming in aloe and harvesting honey from beehives.” Says Dan Woodley.

“In traditional economics, eco-services provided by natural resources are not part of the equation. But today, environmental economics is becoming more appreciated. Industries at the coast should be taxed for the eco-services that the Chyulus provide. This money can then be channelled directly into the conservation of the Chyulus.”

This approach to wildlife conservation is one that has worked for Brazil, a success story that Tsavo hopes to imitate.

“150 years ago, the minister for environment in Portugal (Brazil was Portuguese territory) declared coffee plantations be destroyed and replaced by forests,” recounts the game warden.

It took 21 years to replant 127,000 acres on the hills. “The forests now supply more than 70 percent of Rio’s 12 million people with water. It can be done,” says Dan.