World Giraffe Day: 3 Ways Community Conservancies Are Helping Giraffes

It’s World Giraffe Day today - 21st June!

Did you know a group of giraffe is often referred to as a ‘tower’? But across Africa, these magnificent towers are tumbling at a worrying rate. According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, giraffe numbers on the continent have plummeted by around 30% since the 1980s, when there were an estimated 155,000 animals roaming across west, central, east and southern Africa. Today, there are approximately 111,000. In some areas where giraffe once thrived, numbers have dropped 95% since the 1980s. 

Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation is blamed for much of this decline. Poaching, disease, war and resource conflict with humans are also significant threats. 

As the community conservation footprint increases in geography and impact across northern Kenya, indigenous people are taking the lead in protecting much of the region’s threatened species, including giraffe. Here are three ways NRT member conservancies are helping to protect these gentle giants: 

1. Intensified anti-poaching patrols:
   Illegal hunting for bush meat is a significant threat to Kenya’s giraffe, now more so than ever as economic hardship tightens its grip amidst a global pandemic. Community conservancy rangers have been working with partners to intensify wildlife patrols, some with support from the EU Community Policing Initiative.
   
   In May, Nasuulu, Leparua, and Lekurruki conservancies conducted joint ranger patrols with support from the 9-5 mobile teams to curb the rising incidents of giraffe poaching for meat in the area. Two giraffe carcasses were recovered leading to the arrest of two suspects.
   
   In mid June 2020, a joint operations team comprising of officers from NRT’s mobile security teams, Ishaqbini Community Conservancy rangers, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and the Director of Criminal Investigations led to the arrest of four suspects for the illegal possession of bushmeat. The carcasses of four dik-diks and two lesser kudus, as well as 150kgs of giraffe meat were found, alongside hunting tools. The arrests were covered in the Daily Nation.
   

2. Expansion of the Ruko Giraffe Sanctuary:
   Plans are underway for a new 27 square km Ruko Giraffe Sanctuary on the shores of Lake Baringo for the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, with a long-term mission to reintroduce free-ranging giraffe into their former range. Ruko Community Conservancy is currently home to seven Rothschild’s giraffe, which have been stranded on an island for several years after rising water levels in Lake Baringo cut off the mainland from their peninsula home. The conservancy have had to invest in supplementary food as there is not enough browse on the island to support the giraffe — as well as being unsustainable and expensive, the conditions are also affecting the health and breeding potential of the animals. One calf was born in April 2019 and is doing well, however the four other calves born over the past two years have not survived: one fell victim to a python just after birth, and the others likely died due to nutritional deficiencies. Approval from KWS has been granted to move the island giraffe to the mainland, and a management plan for the new sanctuary has been developed.
   
   In May this year, fence clearing to establish a boundary cutline and fencing of the proposed mainland Sanctuary begun, with widespread community support.
   

3. Research, in partnership with San Diego Zoo Global.

   As part of the biggest giraffe satellite tagging project ever to happen, 21 endangered reticulated giraffe were fitted with GPS satellite trackers in NRT member conservancies at the end of September 2019. In total, 28 animals were tagged as part of this project, which will provide important data on giraffe home ranges, movements, poaching and conflict with humans - very little of which has ever been quantified previously. 

   It is hoped that community conservancies, private and government wildlife reserves, and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will be able to use this information to inform effective conservation strategies, and collaborate on giraffe protection initiatives on the ground. Five NRT member community conservancies (Westgate, Sera, Biliqo, Melako and Kalama) have partnered with NRT, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), San Diego Zoo Global (SDZG), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and Shaba and Samburu National Reserves on this landscape-level conservation project. Read the fill story here.