About Tsavo Eco-system
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The Tsavo Eco-system
Tsavo is the largest National Park in Kenya, located in the southern part of the country, covering an area of 22.000 square kilometres.
The Park's environs are made up of livestock ranches, seasonal small-scale agricultural farms and community wildlife reserves. Therefore, the entire area that wild animals can roam freely upon - the "Tsavo Eco System" - is realistically larger and covers an area of approx. 35.000 square kilometres.
The Tsavo Parks were gazetted in April 1948 from an area of seemingly no importance to any form of human requirement, being mainly dry, uninhabited, badly watered and with a low and unreliable rainfall.
Due to the conservation area's immense size, the park was divided into East and West in 1949 for administrative purposes, and the Eastern part further split up into the Northern and Southern Area.
Tsavo was famous for its large Elephant and Rhino concentrations, which were estimated at 40.000 Elephants and 6.000 Rhinos in the 60's. It was also the famous hunting area for Baron Blixen and Finch Hatton!
Tsavo then became known for the extensive Elephant and Rhino die-off because of the 1960's drought and the subsequent debate between scientists and park managers about the ethics of culling Elephants. Then followed twenty years of large scale poaching, mainly due to the phenomenal rise in price of Rhino horn and ivory on the international market.
Tsavo's importance
To quote Noel Simon (Board of Trustees for National Parks): "Although there are several areas in Kenya possessing greater densities of wildlife, particularly the plains game, the exceptional importance of the Tsavo Park lies in the fact that it is by far the largest region in Kenya with National Park status and therefore devoted exclusively to wildlife. Its strength and importance lie in its size and status. For this reason it is by far the most important permanent wildlife sanctuary in the country."
Bill Woodley (one of the first game wardens of the country and one of the founder pioneers of National Parks in Kenya): "Because of its immense size, Tsavo must be the only park in the country that can be considered ecologically workable in that the conservation of wildlife can be contained within its boundaries. Most of the other parks in the country are small, being approximately 400 square miles or less, and, therefore dependent on adjoining areas for the survival of the wildlife they contain, with the result that they are exposed to external pressure."
Past to Present:
Over the last 50 years, most of the park's infrastructure was developed to ease access for security and tourism. A road network of 4500 km and over 50 airstrips were built as well as Ranger outposts, Headquarters, water systems, bridges, lodges and camps, Rhino sanctuaries with free release sites, game proof fences and an elaborate security structure of the military type, including radio communications.
Although the Tsavos have been popular with tourists and collect a substantial amount of revenue through entry fees, they are far from being self-sustainable as they cover such a vast area, and especially because the existing money and funds have mainly been spent on efficient security operations and only the major tourist facilities. As a result of this, a large portion of Tsavo East National Park, mainly the Northern Area, has been neglected and its infrastructure has entirely collapsed.
Northern Area:
The Northern Area covers two-thirds of the entire Tsavo East area - 8000 square kilometres. Separated from civilisation to the west by the 270 km long Yatta Plateau, split from the southern park by the Galana River, and wild to the East due to its bleakness. This area is vast, mostly arid, waterless for most of the year and cut off by flooded rivers during the rains. Harsh, dry and unforgiving bush land, but the last wilderness area of its kind and size in Kenya, and therefore immeasurably important for the conservation of Wildlife!
For the last 50 years, this section of Tsavo East National Park has been closed to the general touring public, because of its immensity and insecurity due to remoteness and closeness to the Somali border.
Although in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, professionally led safaris were permitted under special arrangement, this had to be stopped again during the 1980s due to the increasing poaching, particularly by armed bandit gangs from Somalia, and also due to the collapsing infrastructure.
The Northern Area has always been the main reservoir for Elephant and Rhino, and as such was the hardest hit by the former traditional bow and arrow hunters, and later by the bandit gangs from Tana River.
Development:
In the late 1980s and 1990s much was achieved by the KWS against the poachers, and this effort complimented by the ivory ban, put a stop to the slaughter of the Elephants. As a result of this, large concentrations of elephants and other game are moving back into the areas, which they used to frequent. Today, this area is also one of the last places, where Wild dogs still roam, hunt and breed freely! Likewise, renewed interest from some companies in the tourist sector, which are searching for a wilderness experience, is now bringing this area back into focus.
In 2006 the KWS formally recognised the Tsavo Eco-system and created a vision for the area which encompassed both Tsavo North, East and West under management plan, including the Chululu Hils, Mzima Springs, and down to the southern border with Mkomazi Reserve in Tanzania.
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