Nairobi National Park’s land size doubles – Nairobi News

Nairobi National Park wildlife ecosystem has more than doubled its land size to 78,000 acres after two institutions agreed to integrate their land with the wildlife conservancy.

On Thursday, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Swara Plains Conservancy declared their 32,000 and 15,000 acres of their land respectively for wildlife conservation.

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala handed over registration certificates to the two conservancies at a ceremony held at the Swara Plains Wildlife Conservancy.

“I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the two conservancies on behalf of the government and the people of Kenya for this wonderful gift that will ensure our unique biodiversity thrives for posterity. This will be an essential wildlife corridor, for the animal population in Nairobi National Park,” said Balala.

The CS added that Nairobi National Park is not big enough to meet the ecological requirements of its wildlife populations throughout the year.

“On the Northern side, we are looking into acquiring 1,500 acres of land to extend the Nairobi National Park to Ngong Forest. We hope that all this will enable Nairobi National Park to be listed and declared a world heritage site,” Balala said.

WILDLIFE CORRIDOR

The CS also inaugurated the taskforce on wildlife corridor connectivity between Nairobi National Park and the Athi-Kapiti Plains.

The latest developments will provide a wildlife corridor to inter-connect Nairobi National Park, Swara and ILRI conservancies.

“Their work is crucial and I expect that this taskforce will in the next three months clearly indicate where we will create a corridor to enable wildlife to migrate freely from Nairobi National Park to Swara-Kapiti plains,” he added.

This now links Nairobi National Park to Machakos County to interconnect with Swara and ILRI conservancies.

The Tourism and Wildlife ministry is also seeking to add 2,000 acres of land from Sheep and Goat Ranch to the Nairobi park.