Community Wildlife Management Program Offered at Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute

Community wildlife conservation is based on the principle that local communities shall participate in and benefit from wildlife conservation. This approach stems from the recognition that protected areas in Kenya as a developing country will survive in so far as they address human concerns and that the future of protected areas that do not have the support of local people is insecure.

This Community Wildlife Management certificate course aims at training individuals within the community who shall or are involved in spearheading wildlife management efforts.

Students gain valuable skills that will help them interact with: members of parliament, councilors, opinion leaders, rural communities, provincial administration, NGOs, Civil society, private ranchers and other relevant ministries at the grass-root level. 

Community Wildlife Management certificate course recognises the fact that wildlife represents one of Kenya’s most valuable renewable natural resources, it, therefore, combines the management of wildlife as a resource with concern for its conservation.

Graduates of this program will be able to:

• Promote positive human-wildlife interaction
• Provide policy direction, guidelines, and technical support
• Enlist community support for wildlife conservation
• Strengthen CWS & Community capacity
• Community education awareness creation, mobilization & extension services
• Provide wildlife policy and legislative direction outside protected areas;
• Provide technical advice to the government, local authorities and landowners on the best methods of wildlife conservation and management;
• Rendering services to farming and ranching communities in Kenya necessary for the protection of agriculture and animal husbandry against destruction by wildlife
• Facilitating wildlife census outside protected areas;
• Planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of community based conservation projects;
• Creating partnerships in wildlife conservation; 
• Establishing mechanisms to reduce human-wildlife conflicts
• Cross-border collaboration on wildlife management issues
• Monitoring & evaluation of CWS conservation programmes and community initiatives.
• To protect people and their property from injury or damage caused by wildlife.
• Facilitate wildlife compensation claims

• D (Plain) or
• D- (Minus) with 3 years working experience in a relevant field

The Kenya Wildlife Services Training Institute (KWSTI) was established following provisions of the wildlife policy contained in the sessional paper No 3 of 1975, ‘Statement of the Future of Wildlife Management Policy in Kenya’ (Republic of Kenya 1975). The sessional paper spelt out a need to build capacity in view of ... read more