The slow pace of delivering information to decision-makers hinders its application to conservation planners and managers. ACP is developing a fully integrated Windows database with open source software that will speed up the process and be available to all conservation organizations  collecting resource data. Victor Mose has in recent months developed most of the software for rapidly entering, analyzing and producing data for use by SORALO, AET, NTRI and DRSRS among others. The platform includes a GIS and other graphical visualization tools to summarize and display the data; open source analytical and statistical packages for rapid evaluation and application of the data, and spatial tools for assessing the trends, drought early-warning systems and the health of ecosystems.
 
ACP’s ultimate aim for the integrated ecological monitoring and one-stop software program is to produce regular state-of-ecosystem reports of the Kenya-Tanzania borderlands on a Google Earth image for use by participating NGOs and communities.
 
Victor Mose used the new software to analyze the Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF) wildlife count undertaken by DRSRS in May. Victor presented a review of the integrated analytical software at the fourth Spatial Ecology Conference in July 2016 in Bristol, United Kingdom (see details here). The presentation will be submitted in the December 2016 report.

The Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) continues to monitoring wildlife, livestock, settlements and vegetation in the national park and across the ecosystem. David Maitumo conducts regular ground counts and David Western monthly aerial counts of the Amboseli Basin. ACP also commissioned the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) to undertake an aerial survey of the 8,500 square kilometre ecosystem in May. The results of the ground and aerial counts are in close agreement, showing strong recovery in wildlife populations over the last three years, following four years of paltry rebound after the population crashes during the 2009 drought.
 
The recovery of wildlife numbers in the aftermath of the 2009 drought was far slower than in the 1970s drought, due to the larger losses of herbivores and heavier predation levels by lions and hyenas. The lag in recovery shows up in the prolonged low population numbers of zebra, wildebeest and buffalo from 2010 to 2014. The small populations of wildlife caused heavy predation on livestock and growing resentment among herders. The last two years have seen a strong recovery in all herbivores once the numbers breached the predation threshold. The seasonal migrations have also picked up again, as shown in the graph. Of special interest is the resumption of migrations by buffalo, which ceased after elephants open up swamp-edge grazing following compression by poaching in the 1970s. The resumption of seasonal migrations spares buffalo heavy predation in the basin during the rains.
 
The trends point to a healthy ecological balance returning to the Amboseli ecosystem after the 2009 population crash. With wildlife ungulates approaching their pre-drought levels, carnivores have more wild prey and less need to attack domestic stock. The larger numbers have also precipitate the resumption of strong seasonal migrations during the rains.
 
The ecosystem-wide surveys commissioned by ACP and conducted by DRSRS in May further confirm the recovery of wildlife numbers. Elephants are back to their pre-drought levels and continue to grow in numbers and expand their range. Zebra numbers have recovered their pre-drought levels of 16,000. Wildebeest numbers have also picked up in the past three years, but at 9,000 still fall short of the pre-drought levels of 17,000.

In March 2015 ACP trained up three additional resource assessors to expand the Amboseli ground monitoring across the ecosystem. The expansion covers Selengei, Mbirikani and Kimana Group ranches. Logistically, the expanded coverage is beyond the capacity of ACP. For this reason, ACP called on Big Life to administer and oversee the monitoring on Selengei and Mbirikani. ACC provided two motorbikes to enable the RAs to cover the three group ranches. A Memorandum of Understanding between ACP/ACC and Big Life was drawn up in December 2015. The program was fully operational by December. The ground monitoring now covers the entire Amboseli ecosystem defined by the migratory ungulates. 
 
David Maitumo will continue to mentor and oversee the resource assessor’s field monitoring. The data will be simultaneously logged at ACC and Big Life, and once the Nongotiak Centre is complete at AET.
 
The final step in setting up and ensuring the sustainability and application of the ecosystem monitoring to planning and management is the preparation of a 5-year MoU between AET and ACP. This will be drawn up once the Nongotiak Resource Centre is complete.

Following a lengthy engagement of the community, Ololorashi Ogululu Group Ranch set aside land for the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust resource centre at Nongotiak adjacent to Amboseli National Park in 2015. The land will house the Nongotiak resource centre and a traditional Maasai home-stay for visitors. Once complete, the land will also provide a visitor centre and Maasai cultural centre.
 
The official launch of the Nontotiak site was held on the 18th March, attended by a large crowd of some 800 community leaders and members gathered in a circle of marquee tents. Dr. David Nkedienye, Governor of Kajiado County, Paul Ntiati, Deputy Governor, the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, County Commissioner, District Commissioner and dozens of other officials attended the launch. The Dutch Ambassador, Frans Makken, was asked to lay the foundation stone for the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust offices, based on the funding the Dutch Government Institutional Support had given for community enterprises through the African Conservation Centre.
 
The ambassador and governor also officially cut the ribbon opening the Maasai home stay accommodation and congratulated the initiative, led my Joyce Maitumo and the Amboseli Women’s Group. Daniel Lolterish, chairman of Ololorashi Group Ranch and the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, led he celebrations in saying how important Nongotiak is to the Maasai community as their centre for planning, managing and coordinating AET activities and the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan. The plan is a partnership of many organizations with AET as the coordinating and implementing body.
 
Emmanuel Kanai, chairman of the Amboseli Tsavo Group Ranch Conservation Association, spoke next and was blunt about the hardship the community faces in conserving wildlife and the sacrifices it makes.
“The Maasai have been the real custodians of wildlife in Amboseli, he said, and yet suffer most. Lions and elephants have grown in numbers and no longer fear people. Children can’t go to school, farmers and herders are losing crops and livestock, yet where is the compensation long promised? The lives and livelihoods of the community must come first, then we can afford to tolerate wildlife and guard it as our own. All the promises of compensation made by government are empty. Tolerance for wildlife is dropping fast, for elephants and lions especially,” he said.
 
The ambassador commented on how important wildlife is for the world, how much the community has done to conserve wildlife, and the role the Dutch government has played in community-based conservation programs in Amboseli, including funding for Nongotiak. Dickson Kaelo, Director of the Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association, spoke of the need to have more conservancies and improve their management. KWCA is ready to help the Amboseli community.
 
David Western gave a brief historical review of the pioneering role Amboseli has played in shaping conservation policies and practices in Kenya and around the world, and the challenges it now faces in the rising conflict between development and wildlife conservation, especially over space.
“We must strike a balance, using the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan as a start.  We must go further to incorporate livestock, agriculture and development as well as physical planning in the AEMP”, he said.
 
Lucy Waruingi, Director of the African Conservation Centre, reviewed the role ACC has played in Amboseli over the years and its commitment to building community capacity through the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust.
 
The speech by the new director of Kenya Wildlife Service, Katili’s Mbathi, who arrive in after the launch of the centre and to highlight the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan, was read by his deputy. It stressed the importance of the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan, co-signed by KWS and AET and supported by the many other organizations involved.
 
Governor Dr. David Nkedienye was in a frank mood when he addressed the large crowd angry at the toll elephants are taking on farms and infrastructure, and depredations by lions and hyenas on livestock. “The Maasai are getting a raw deal”, he said. “Much as I am a professional conservationist, I am laying it on the line: elephants must be managed if they are to find a place outside parks. How many elephants can Amboseli carry? What plans does KWS have to limit the numbers and contain elephant impact?” he asked.
 
Katili Mbathi, Director of KWS, read a speech prepared by the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Prof. Judi Wakhungu, who was unable to attend until the following day. She reinforced the Ministry’s commitment to address human-wildlife conflict through the county committees.
 
The meeting was important for several reasons. It rallied the community around its own conservation efforts and solidified the central role Nongotiak will play as a centre for information, planning and oversight of the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan. It also gave the community a chance to greet the new KWS director and vent their feelings over the rising levels of conflict. Finally, it gave the new director a window onto the challenges facing KWS as the elephant poaching crisis subsides. The bigger longer-term challenges lie in finding space and a place for wildlife beyond parks--and beyond the conservancies--which have been the sole policy focus of KWS outside parks so far.

The consortium of organization under the Northern Tanzania Rangelands Initiative (NTRI) approached ACP last year with a view to adopting the Amboseli Ecosystem Monitoring Program for all locations under its coverage. ACP conducted a training program at Big Life Centre between August 14th and 16th the same year, through the Borderlands Conservation Initiative. The training workshop included participants from HoneyGuide (HG), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Tanzania People and Wildlife (TPW) and Progetto Oikos. The Uaso Nyiro Baboon Project in Kenya also attended. The workshop was conducted by David Western, Victor Mose and David Maitumo from ACP and staff of ACC, with support from the Amboseli Resource Assessors (RA’s), Paul Kasaine, Samuel Lekanaiya and George Sunte. A full report of the workshop was submitted to LCAOF in the Final Report of ACP for 2015.
 
NTRI included the ecological monitoring program in its proposal to US AID, which was secured in early 2016. NTRI then requested ACP to conducted field training for newly recruited Resource Assessors. Victor Mose, Pete Tyrrell and David Maitumo carried out the RA training for NTRI.
 
The next phase of RA training and integration of monitoring across the northern Tanzania and Kenya borderlands will take place at the Lale’enok Center in the South Rift late in 2016.

 
The greatest and most imminent threats to the Amboseli ecosystem are:

• Land subdivision leading to permanent settlement, fencing and loss of migratory space.
• Reduced pasture production and shortening drought intervals due to heavy continuous grazing.
• Compression of elephants into Amboseli National Parks and loss of habitat diversity and late season drought reserves in the swamps.
• Rising human-wildlife conflict due to a combination of these factors and loss of skills and knowledge for living alongside wildlife.

 
Countering these threats is the main aim of ACP’s research and conservation work.
 
Since it initiated the process in 2006, ACP has promoted the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan (AEMP) as the basis for tackling the threats. The plan draws on and has been co-signed by the group ranch association and KWS and supported by all major NGOs working in the Amboseli region—ACC, AWF, Big Life, IFAW and MWCT. The plan was formally gazette in 2015, giving it legal standing and teeth. A GEF grant was secured in early 2015 to fund the biodiversity component of the plan. The roles played by the various organizations collaborating on the grant is outlined in the AEMP plan and GEF grant submission sent to LCAOF in previous reports. The GEF start-up was delayed for a year by KWS upheavals. ACP and ACC have, nevertheless, moved ahead on the components of GEF touching on the main threats to the ecosystem.
 
In the case of the land subdivision threat, ACP is assisting ACC in land use planning on Mbirkani Group Ranch, with a view to expanding the planning to other ranches. The land planning process has gone through several iterations since last year and is currently under review by the group ranch membership. Once completed and adopted, the plan will zone the ranch into different uses. The main use, livestock and wildlife enterprises, will occupy the major portion of the Mbirikani. Under GEF funding, ACC and Big Life will assist the group ranch in preparing grazing practices based on traditional seasonal movement patterns that have broken down for lack of management. Specially trained scouts under Big Life and RAs under ACP/ACC will monitor and enforce grazing practices.
 
In the case of pasture degradation, ACP wrote up the grant proposal on behalf of AET to secure a Dutch NAGA grant for habitat and pasture restoration. ACP has since assisted KWS and AET in designing and setting up three woodland restoration plots inside the park. It has also helped Ololorashi and Mbirikani Group Ranches establish eight traditional grass banks known as olopololi. The fenced olopololi restore cover on degraded lands adjacent to permanent settlements and are maintained by the community for late season calf grazing.  The restoration plots are now complete and will be monitored by the RAs under David Maitumo’s guidance.
 
In the case of biodiversity loss due to elephant compression, the earlier woodlands plots set up by ACP have been replicated by KWS, Serena, Tortilis Lodge, and in the last year, by the NAGA funded project, making ten in all. GEF funds will add another five or more. In collaboration with AET, ACP has set up a restoration group that will draw up a long-term habitat restoration program for the park and pastoral lands. The recovery of woodlands at the site ACP set up in 2001 has been remarkable. Camera traps recently recorded lesser kudu in the plot, the first siting in the park since the species disappeared with the loss of woodlands in the 1980s.

In the case of human-wildlife conflict, the main tension arises from the growing elephant and lion populations and the expansion of their ranges. The last few years have seen a sharp rise in conflict with farmers and pastoralists. Big Life and other NGOs supporting the Amboseli community scouts have begun turning their attention to the conflict.

In January AET established a HWC group to address the problem following several incidents in which farmers and herders were killed and severely wounded by elephants. The group brings together representatives of the pastoral and farming community, KWS, Big Life, Lion Guardians, IFAW and ACC/ACP to map and anticipate conflicts, draw up preventative and mitigation measures and coordinate action. ACP will take on the role of setting up the data base and helping plot and anticipate conflict areas. The group held its inaugural meeting in March and will focus first on constructing a 35km high-wire electric fence to protect the shambas in Namalog and Kimana east of Amboseli and the expansive farms on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
 
The HWC group covers all species and will prepare a generic template for winning space for large herbivores and carnivores and reducing conflict in the borderlands area through the auspices of Borderland Conservation Initiative