Ecological Management

Human populations and activities both within and around the MMNR have increased dramatically over recent decades. These pressures on the Reserve range from internal factors such as high visitor densities impacting on the Reserve’s habitats and wildlife, to even more profound long-term external factors, such as diminishing quantities and erratic flow of water in the Mara River, the lifeline of the Reserve, and changing land-use practices, such as conversion to wheat farming in the north of the ecosystem, which is eroding the dispersal areas and migration corridors that are critical to the survival of the Reserve’s wildlife. The scale of these xi pressures is such that concerted action by Reserve managers and other stakeholders is now urgently needed, which is the major function of the Ecological Management Programme.

To address these issues, the Programme first identifies the most important and representative biological features of the Reserve’s ecosystem – called the Conservation Targets - including the key species and habitats that are represented in the Reserve, as well as the system-level features that are critical to the Reserve. The programme then identifies the key ecological attributes that are vital to maintaining the Conservation Targets, as well as the critical threats impacting on the targets. This information is then used as a basis for the development of the Programme’s management objectives and actions, with the aim of ensuring that management attention is focusing on the most important biological components of the Reserve and the most important threats impacting on them. The programme’s first objective focuses on the critically endangered Black rhino population (one of the only two remaining “indigenous” populations remaining in the country), which remains under serious threat from commercial poaching and diminishing habitat and has suffered from very slow population growth over recent years.

Actions included focus on enhancing monitoring collaborations with KWS and TANAPA and supporting the implementation of the National Black Rhino Strategy and Action Plan. Also at the species level, the programme’s second objective focuses on the Roan antelope and Greater kudu, both of which are no longer present in the Reserve but for which there are plans to reintroduce as part of the process to restore the Reserve’s natural species diversity. The programme’s third objective focuses on the protection and management of the MMNR’s characteristic habitat mosaic, which is not only important for maintaining the Reserve’s species diversity and abundance but also forms a crucial part of the area’s tourism attraction. A major focus of management action is fire management, which is one of the most important threats to these habitats. At the wider ecosystem level, the programme’s fourth objective focuses on the threats to the M ara River, whose catchment forests are coming under increasing pressure from human activities, especially in the Mau Escarpment.

While addressing these issues is outside the direct mandate of MMNR managers, in view of their potentially devastating consequences for the Reserve’s ecology, the Programme includes management actions for both the Narok County and Reserve managers to collaborate in and support wider efforts to address these issues. The final objective in this programme focuses on enhancing research and monitoring in the area. Whereas the Reserve has a strong history of ecological research and is host to the KWSmanaged Mara Research Station, much of this research has not been of direct relevance or application to management. This objective therefore focuses on putting into place the necessary human resources, systems and structures to ensure that research is of direct practical benefit to management, and to enable management to understand and focus on emerging threats to the Reserve’s ecology in the future. This will include efforts to upgrade the Mara Research Station to a centre of excellence in Mara Ecosystem research and monitoring.