Launch of SOKNOT – 17/03/2023 – Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife

PS Museiya presided over the launch of the masterplan & models for a large-scale trans-boundary landscape conservation and sustainable development programme ,SOKNOT(South of Kenya, North of Tanzania) – dubbed as Unganisha Transboundary Programme.

The programme which will be funded by The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the governments of Kenya and Tanzania will see WWF – Kenya-Kenya and WWF-Tanzania jointly implement the Masterplan and models for a large scale landscape conservation and sustainable development programme, in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania.

The three-and-half-year Transboundary Progamme seeks to:

1. Contribute to Kenya’s and Tanzania’s efforts to implement wildlife corridor and dispersal area strategies while ensuring that the livelihoods and well-being of people living in those wildlife areas are enhanced.

2. Benefit communities through improved resource management, secured ecosystem services and livelihoods.

3. Conserve the natural area as a whole, the integrity, connectivity and functionality of its ecosystems and the sustainable protection of its wildlife and natural resources.

4. Achieve the development and endorsement of a coherent transboundary policy and governance framework and strategy for functional wildlife corridors

5. Strengthen and institutionalize civil society in governance and participative coordination structures in scalable projects and model areas implemented in the Amboseli-Chyulu sub-landscape.

In her remarks PS Museiya reiterated the urgent need for Water for wildlife. “For me, the number one priority is human-wildlife conflict mitigation (HWC). Last month, we lost 38 people to HWC. That is a huge distraction to our success” she said. She urged WWF to include wildlife water in their project design.

In line with the presidential directive on Forest Restoration and in the spirit of implementing robust forest protection, the PS also led a tree planting session to build resilience to climate change to increase forest cover.

“This project is a green wildlife corridors project. Conservation will be one of the outcomes. We must attend to the needs of women, children, the elderly and the communities who live here.” CEO WWFKenya said in his remarks.

Guido Reuter the head of civil society cooperation in BMZ noted that it was good to see that Unganisha is wanted here in Kenya & Tanzania, in Govts & hopefully by the people living on the ground of the programme area, and that they benefit. “It’s important that the programme is nothing from the outside, but your programme.” he said.