Strengthening governance in conservation through a Community of Practice

The Critical Ecologically Significant Areas - CESA Mapping and Stakeholder Consultation workshop brought together landscape associations, community conservancies, and technical partners to deliberate on strengthening governance and equity in conservancies.

Convened by the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, we joined Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, Baringo County Conservancies Association and technical partners such as IUCN, Fauna & Flora, and the University of Nairobi, to establish a community of practice CoP on equitable governance in conserved areas.

Drawing on lessons from the Site-level Assessment of Governance and Equity SAGE, a tool that assesses governance in protected areas, participants discussed findings from implementing conservancies on identified gaps in grievance redress mechanisms, benefit-sharing systems, limited transparency, and inclusive participation.

One key outcome of this gathering was consensus on a structured platform to move conservation beyond isolated, project-based interventions and support, towards ensuring landscape-level governance improvement in the context of differences across regions.

The Community of Practice will be the formal platform for cross-landscape learning, collaboration, and scaling of effective governance practices.

Community of Practice CoP in equitable governance session.