In Kenya, the search for ecologically appropriate solutions to the conflict between human and wildlife habitat is at a critical juncture. Urban, industrial, and agricultural expansion and Kenya's soaring population increasingly threaten the habitat and resources required by Kenya's wildlife, and in turn, the culture, viability and well-being of traditional, nomadic peoples such as the Maasai. Lion, elephant, giraffe, rhino, monkey, zebra, and other indigenous wildlife are the country's most famous and economically valuable resource, the result of a well-developed global tourism industry. But today, the rangelands where wildlife and pastoralists previously interacted freely and peacefully are now places of rapidly increasing human/wildlife conflicts and intensifying resource competition. Land, water, pasture, and space are diminishing every year, posing great challenges to wildlife and environmental conservation. Nomadic peoples, including the Maasai (and the cattle herds they depend upon), are being confined to smaller plots of land, resulting in overgrazing and rangeland degradation. Further, the wildlife, which has co-existed for centuries with these non-hunting peoples, are now not only seen as competitors, but are themselves intensely persecuted through illegal practices such as snaring for bush meat trade. Threats to wildlife in dispersal areas outside protected areas are many, but even in protected areas where they seemed safe, negative impacts of tourism, administrative activities, habitat restriction, and poaching are endangering biodiversity.

HEALTH AND SAFETY ARTICLES

Health and Safety in Kenya from the SFS Safety Director
Mefloquine Prophylaxis: An African Experience