Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 197

pastoral Maasai, were removed. Tsavo, established in 1948, is one of the
largest parks in the world, so large that it is divided in two for administra-
tion. Game includes elephants, lions, leopards, cape buffalos, and hippos.
Mount Kenya National Park was established in 1949. The mountain has
distinct biospheres as the altitude increases. In all there are 18 national
parks and 11 game reserves. Right from the beginning the parks were
oriented toward foreign tourists.
Cowie and others believed separating the parks from the Game Depart-
ment was necessary to fend off pressure for farming and mining. Admin-
istratively the Parks were controlled by an independent Board of Trustees. 7
In the 1950s poaching for ivory became more of a problem. The elephant
population was declining, especially in Tsavo. The hunters there were the
Waata and the Kamba bowmen. Rangers rarely could find them making
a kill, so they adopted three strategies. First was a network of informers.
Second was to raid their villages and hideouts, where they kept the ivory,
and third was to recruit the poachers as park employees. 8
With independence in 1963, the Game and Parks departments staff
shifted from white control to African control, like all the government
departments. Whites were eased out of their jobs to be replaced by
Africans. Often a British permanent secretary would stay on for a number
of years to run the bureaucracy while the minister would be appointed
by the new prime minister or president. Kenya is often pointed to as an
example of a smooth transition compared to other sub-Saharan countries.
In 1976 the Game Department and Kenya National Parks were merged to
form the Wildlife Conservation and Management District, and in 1990
was renamed the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Independence did not end the problem of poaching, however. Between
1976 and 1988, the population of elephants declined by 85% and the popu-
lation of rhinos declined by 97%. The Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to impose a worldwide ban on
selling or buying ivory, which was an immediate success. With no market,
poaching declined, and the population rebounded. This had its own prob-
lems. With the human population increasing, more people lived near
parks and reserves. Elephants wandered onto farms, destroying crops and
smashing fences. People were injured. In 1991 the Wildlife Service began
to pay farmers to tolerate animal damage in return for a 25% cut of the
gate receipts from the nearby park. Funds went for schools, medical clin-
ics, water supplies, roads, and so forth. Tourism was at an all-time high,
so money was available. Unfortunately, the Wildlife Service lost popular