NAIROBI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to develop innovative schemes and incentives to secure wildlife corridors that will promote conservation, officials said on Tuesday.
Philip Muruthi, chairperson of Working Group on Wildlife Corridors and Dispersal Areas, told Xinhua in Nairobi that the wildlife corridors and dispersal areas are shrinking due to human activities.
"Kenya is keen to prioritize wildlife corridors and dispersal areas because they play an important role in ecological connectivity by linking adjacent national parks and reserves," Muruthi said.
He said that protected parks and game reserves are not sufficient to provide all the essential needs for wildlife.
"Hence the animals sometimes have to move out of the protected areas in order to access important resources such salt and water," Muruthi added.
The chairperson noted that up to 70 percent of wildlife is located outside the protected areas. "This means that most of animals are in community, government and private land," he said.
Muruthi noted that the best way to manage the wildlife dispersal areas is through empowering communities living next to wildlife habitats to benefit from the presence of the animals.
Communities can partner with private investors to develop wildlife conservancies that earn income through tourism, he said.
