BOUND FOR AFRICA
Research to Support Linking Livestock markets to Wildlife Conservation
The Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) (www.lewa.org), a Kenyan wildlife conservation group, is developing a community-based pilot project that would help local people better manage their range lands, earn more from the livestock that they sell and find alternative enterprises to supplement their income. The NRT next steps are outlined in the proposal entitled "Linking Livestock Markets to Wildlife Conservation." There are many unknowns in this new approach to wildlife conservation. Research could help reduce uncertainty and guide NRT strategies. Solutions identified in Kenya may be extended to other parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.

Involving Purdue and Egerton University students and their faculty advisors would be a cost effective way to provide key research, plus the research experience would be an invaluable educational benefit. This proposal outlines how the Purdue College of Agriculture and School of Veterinary Medicine, Egerton University, and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) would work with NRT to solve key problems in wildlife conservation, while at the same time providing educational experiences for graduate and undergraduate students.

The initial contact between a team from NRT and Purdue faculty took place in Zionsville, Indiana, in September, 2005. In early February, 2006, three Purdue faculty members, Drs. Simon Kenyon, Maria Marshall and J. Lowenberg-DeBoer, joined Drs. Abdi Gulieye and Margaret Ngigi, Egerton University, and Dr. George Keya, KARI Marsibit, in visiting NRT related activities in northern Kenya. The team of researchers had the opportunity to see operations and meeting staff at: 0l Pejeta, a combined ranch and wildlife based tourism business; Lewa Conservancy, a non-profit organization that is pioneering new approaches in wildlife conservation; II Ngwesi, a Maasi community immediately north of Lewa, that operates a eco-tourist lodge and is beginning to manage grazing; and Namunyak, Sera and Kalama Conservancies which are members of NRT. On Friday, Feb. 10, the researchers met NRT, 0l Pejeta, and Lewa staff to discuss research and research priorities. This proposal is the product of research team's visit to NRT sites and the discussion.
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