Conservationists are concerned that the fencing of private land bordering Kenya’s popular Maasai Mara National Reserve has interfered with wildlife migratory routes.

Mara Triangle Conservancy CEO, Brian Heath, said most game ranches in Narok County had been sold off by the owners to private developers, who have since fenced them.

The Mara Triangle Conservancy, he said, is looking for ways of negotiating with the landowners in a bid to contain the interference of wildlife corridors.

The Kenyan government and the conservation agency, Kenya Wildlife Service, he added, should ensure that animals are secure through working with landowners to see conservation as a viable form of land use.

“Fencing around the Maasai Mara National Reserve, which started five years ago, is emerging as a major threat to the ecosystem within this popular wildlife habitat,” he pointed out.

Heath added that conservation should be seen as a legitimate viable form of land use to sustain the wildlife migratory routes.

“Unless landowners value conservation, wildlife will continue to decline. There is need for the local communities to support the conservation of wild animals as they are a major tourist attraction,” he emphasized.

Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association CEO, Dickson Ole Kaelo, said 17 conservancies have come up with management plans to curb the trend after they realised it was a threat to the ecosystem.

Kaelo noted that the fencing of land bordering the Mara was a threat to the biodiversity as it interfered with wildlife migratory routes.

“The conservancies were set up to protect and conserve wildlife and to work in partnership with local communities from whom the land was leased for,” he explained.