NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 14 – Kenya on Tuesday urged its private sector to boost the country’s wildlife conservation campaign.
Najib Balala, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, said that wildlife conservation is an expensive undertaking that cannot be accomplished by public resources alone.
“Conservation of wildlife resources requires us to be innovative because it is not cheap, and this is the reason we came up with an initiative to raise funds,” Balala said during the reception of the second batch of contributions from sponsors towards the Magical Kenya Tembo naming festivals set for October in the Amboseli National Park to support elephant conservation.
According to Balala, so far the Magical Kenya Tembo Naming festival has received a total of 10 million shillings (91, 000 U.S. dollars) with other contributions expected to be received before the naming event.
Balala added that the naming ceremony will allow individuals and organizations to give names to selected elephants after donating funds towards the program which is aimed at boosting conservation efforts of the endangered species.
He said that the recently concluded national wildlife census gives the government a basis of identifying the species that requires attention as far as conservation is concerned.
He observed that while the population for Kenya’s iconic wildlife species such as elephants is increasing, other endangered species such as rhino, sable and roan antelopes require attention.
John Waweru, director general of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said that Kenyans should not wait for foreigners to come and conserve local wildlife resources.
“We as Kenyans can do it by ourselves, people should know that this is not restricted to corporations, but individuals should also come out and adopt their heritage,” Waweru said.
