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Most of the East and Horn of African wildlife exist outside formally government protected areas, (i.e., parks and reserves) and thrive either on private or community lands (Mureithi, Verdoodt, Njoka, Olesarioyo, & Van Ranst, 2019;
Nelson, 2012; Western, Russell, & Cuthil, 2009). This is largely why the initial state-centric approach of wildlife conservation across Africa has failed (Oluoch, 2015). Due to this, community-based wildlife conservation has
increasingly become a popular approach across East Africa to ensure that there is sustainability and improvement of wildlife habitats outside all protected areas (Mureithi et al., 2019). For example and in the case of Kenya, the
most widespread community-based wildlife conservation in the past twenty years has been the establishment of locally protected areas often termed as community conservancies or sanctuaries (Nelson, 2012). Subsequently, over 140 wildlife
conservancies have been established in Kenya covering over 7.5 million acres of land and benefiting more than 2 million people in the last two decades alone (Oluoch, 2015).




However, despite the vast landscape with significant biodiversity, the northeastern part of Kenya, which primarily consists of xeric acacia-commiphora bush-lands, however, lacks protected areas (formal government areas as well as community-owned
conservancies, This region is part of the Horn of Africa biodiversity hotspot that harbors multiple unique wildlife species and flora that are endemic to this region such as the critically endangered hirola antelope in Garissa (Ali
et al 2017, 2018), the endangered reticulated giraffe and the endangered Grevy’s zebra (Rubenstein et al. 2016). Other species include a poorly known population of large carnivores (critically endangered African wild dogs, African
lions, cheetahs and leopards), the vulnerable African Elephant, Beisa oryx, Oribi, striped hyena, gerenuks among others threatened species. Moreover, this region also plays a critical role in hosting unique refugee Somali fauna fleeing
from war ravaged areas of Somalia. For instance, Garissa Giraffe Sanctuary was formed to host giraffe population afflicted by wars in Somalia leading them to flee across the border to Kenya (Dahiye 2005). Consequently, the lack of
protected areas puts all these endangered species at imminent risk of extinction. Thus, we are proposing to establish 18 new protected areas in this historically volatile but recovering region and towards the end, fully launch and
run the Northeastern Conservancies Association which we registered in early 2020 with an initial membership of four conservancies including the Bura East Conservancy.



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