Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has announced that the ministry has been working on a new policy for wildlife, which is meant to enhance conservation.

Balala, who was speaking on Saturday during a consultative meeting with the National Assembly Committee on Environment and Natural Resources at Kilaguni, Tsavo West National Park, said that the current policy was a bit outdated and needed to be amended to reflect modern-day challenges in wildlife conservation.

“Last Wildlife policy was done in 1975. The current framework needs to be changed and we have been working on it since February 2017. Despite its achievements, the policy was not robust enough to address emerging challenges and realities in the sector including rapid population growth and accelerated economic development that has led to the loss of space for wildlife,” Balala said.

The CS further noted that the key cornerstone of Kenya’s wildlife conservation policy has been the establishment of national parks, reserves and sanctuaries as representative samples of county’s natural region and said that there’s a need to improve the products in order to increase our revenue.

“The standings of destination as of now is 70% wildlife and 30% beach,” he said.

Efforts are ongoing to erect fences in areas experiencing human-wildlife conflict as well as curbing livestock grazing in protected areas.