The African Elephant is a key WWF flagship species under the Wildlife Practice; and has been identified as a priority species within the recently reviewed WWF-Kenya’ Strategic Action Plan 2018 - 2023. The Species is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and red list of threatened species and ‘threatened with extinction’ under Appendix 1 of  the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed species. 

 

The African elephant is important to Kenya’s economic development and conservation efforts; a species of global concern whose population has reduced drastically over the past century largely due to poaching . Within the Mau-Mara- Serengeti landscape, threats to this species have been identified as both natural and  human activities driven. 

 

The conservation of the African Elephant runs through the rangelands stretching from the Mau-Mara-Serengeti and Kwale landscapes as well as Lamu landscape (Lamu-Ijara).

 

The WWF Africa Elephant Conservation Action Plan and Kenya Wildlife Service  Elephant Conservation Strategy inform the African elephant conservation work. WWF-Kenya’s African elephant conservation strategy focuses on three thematic areas namely: mitigating against human elephant conflict, improving livelihoods, securing and expanding elephant range as well as reducing poaching and retaliatory killing of elephants. 

Through the project, we empower community rangers as a key strategy in boosting elephant conservation, which ensures reduced human wildlife conflict cases, as well as enhance habitat management.