Governance

Strengthening Conservancy Governance

Community conservancies have proven to be effective instruments for cultivating peace, increasing community resilience, promoting good natural resource management, combatting wildlife trafficking, and developing sustainable enterprises and livelihoods that are directly or indirectly related to conservation and preserve biodiversity.

We believe that community conservancies, which are increasingly recognised as vital institutions in Kenya and throughout Africa, are the most effective way for governments and development agencies to deliver the right, long-term solutions for wildlife protection and other sustainable land uses that can lead to improved livelihoods.

NRT, therefore, seeks to enhance conservancy governance by strengthening the management skills of community conservancy leaders through its Leadership and Management Programme (LAMP), financial trainings, inclusion of all social groups and in the coastal conservancies, improving the governance of fisheries that underpin the local economy.

ROSHNI LODHIA | Women at the coast in a LAMP class

““I have seen two good things in this training. [Firstly] I have understood who I am as a woman… we have seen that we have rights and that we can do what men can do. Second - we [know] how to manage our conservancy and our homes… this training will broaden our thinking.””

— EVERLYNE LESOOITA, Board member, Nanapisho Community Conservancy

NRT enhances leadership and governance in community conservancies through:

1. The Leadership and Management Programme (LAMP): NRT’s LAMP trainings provides a powerful transformational process for enlightening, equipping and empowering indigenous people and local communities to exercise their human rights in managing their land, conserving natural resources and wildlife, and securing their livelihoods in the face of an unpredictable future.

2. Financial Management Training: Effective financial management at the community conservancy level accelerates the development of community conservancies, increases their sustainability and promotes transparency and accountability.

3. Governance Index: To ensure continuous improvement in conservancy governance, NRT measures the management effectiveness of each of its members using the governance index, which informs the tailored support to be provided to each community conservancy. The average governance score for 2023 was 68%, reflecting an average performance in voice, legitimacy, fairness and rights, and direction categories across all conservancies.

4. Conservancy Annual General Meetings: NRT advocates for conservancy's Annual General Meetings (AGMs), which are open to all social groups to deliberate on conservancy progress, audited accounts, board election outcomes, and yearly plans.

5. Conservancy Elections: Each NRT member community conservancy has a board of directors that is democratically elected by the community. The board oversees the conservancy’s finance, grazing, and peace committees, whose members are also elected by the community.

6. Gender and Social Inclusion: NRT is focused on increasing the participation of all social groups in conservation and community development by integrating a gender equality perspective at all stages and levels of policies, programmes, and projects, both internally and within its member community conservancies.

7. Development of Conservancy Management Plan (CMDPs): which outline conservancies’ long-term goals for growth and conservation. The CMDPs are developed through a participatory process that involves all stakeholders and communities in the conservancies and serves as a tool for directing conservancy management action, fundraising and promoting accountability.