A Kenyan court dealt a blow to the conservation group Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) when a three-judge panel ruled that two of its community conservancy affiliates were set up illegally. The decision, issued by the Environment and Land Court of Isiolo county in northern Kenya, ordered the conservancies to shut down their operations effective immediately. Fifty-three community wildlife rangers were also prohibited from “operating or deploying” in Merti subcounty, where the two conservancies, Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab, are located. The ruling was a win for 165 residents from the two conservancies who filed the petition in 2021. Abdirahman Osman, a pastoralist and human rights advocate who was the lead petitioner, said he was “happy” with the outcome. “I’m not opposing the concept of conservation, but how it’s done and the legitimacy created a lot of confusion and doubts,” he told Mongabay by phone. NRT, founded in 2004, supports 44 community conservancies in Kenya, covering around 10% of the country’s landmass, primarily in the arid north. NRT describes its mission as to “develop sustainable solutions that directly benefit local people, land, and wildlife.” In the ruling, the judges said both Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies were established without adequate public participation. Officials from Isiolo county, which includes Merti subcounty, were described as having “breached their constitutional and statutory mandates” by neglecting to register community land before permitting conservancies to operate on it. NRT’s supporters in Isiolo protested against the decision, vowing to appeal it. “We are determined to fight this ruling…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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