National Elephant Action Plan (NEAP) for Kenya (2023 – 2032)

This Action Plan presents the efforts of the Government of Kenya through the Kenya Wildlife Service, partners and stakeholders to successfully mitigate the upsurge of poaching in recent years, in order to recover the national elephant populations that were highly threatened by the menace in the past. Furthermore, Kenya aims at contributing to the posterity of the savannah elephant through pragmatic, durable and sustainable conservation and management of its elephant populations. The Plan's vision is to sustain a thriving elephant population and their habitats, while ensuring beneficial and harmonious co-existence with humans for posterity, and it is achieved through the main goal of maintaining viable, healthy and secure elephant populations while reducing human-elephant conflict, restoring elephant habitat and increasing the value of elephants to people. The Action Plan is based on eight strategic objectives: 1) reducing human-elephant conflicts, by adopting innovative approaches; 2) enhancing socio-economic benefits and inclusive conservation and management of elephants; 3) reducing the illegal killing of elephants and the illicit trade in elephant products through effective law enforcement and community engagement; 4) securing elephant dispersal areas and restoring existing ranges, and connectivity to ensure population resilience; 5) strengthening co-creation of indigenous and scientific knowledge for conservation and management of African Elephant; 6) enhancing awareness and education on elephant conservation and management; 7) strengthening cross border collaborations and partnerships; 8) ensuring the Action Plan is sustainably resourced for effective implementation.
Targeted actions of the Plan include: provision of reliable data and information on elephant dispersal areas and seasonal migratory patterns; land-use zoning exercises and planning processes at both lower and higher levels, leading to increasing the areas available to wildlife, to enhancing compatibility of land uses; adoption of County Spatial Plans for improving the holistic management of natural resources; providing incentives to local communities that bear the cost of living with elephants; creating large conservation areas, especially conservancies connected by wide corridors.