Conservation of biodiverse resource areas (COBRA)

Summarizes interim evaluation (XD-ABN-164-A) of a project to increase the socioeconomic benefits of sustainable natural and wildlife resource management and conservation in communities surrounding Kenya's parks and reserves (COBRA project). The Kenya Wildlife Service is implementing the project. The evaluation covered the period 4/92-2/96. COBRA has made significant progress toward fulfilling its purpose. Buffer communities have benefited primarily through revenue sharing and, to a lesser extent, from enterprise development. Perhaps more importantly, community attitudes toward the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the possibility of deriving meaningful benefits from community-based conservation have changed radically, especially in the project's focal areas: the districts of Kajiado, Laikipia, Samburu, and the coastal area south of Mombasa. The project's benefits have been derived from its substantial investment in communities that heretofore had only suffered the costs of living with wildlife; for example, $179,00 (Ksh 10M) was invested in Kimana Game Sanctuary, $260,00 (Ksh 15M) in Illingwesi Tourist Bandas, and $35,000 (2M) in Lurubae Cultural Centre. Only time will tell if t

Source: DEC abstract, PD-ABN-164 (1996). This is the source's own text, not a cited summary of the documents.