People and wildlife can share this landscape, if we build the right conditions for both
Human-wildlife conflict is one of the most serious threats to conservation on Mount Kenya. MKT has spent 25 years developing practical, evidence-based approaches that reduce conflict, protect livelihoods and create the conditions for genuine coexistence — not just tolerance.
Why Coexistence Matters
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) in Kenya is escalating. Elephants are responsible for approximately 46% of all conflict incidents nationally, primarily through crop raiding. Over the past decade, Kenya has recorded more than 300 human deaths from human-wildlife conflict. For the communities living at Mount Kenya’s forest edge, this is not an abstract conservation issue. It is a nightly threat to crops, livelihoods and safety. Conflict is also a conservation threat. When farmers suffer repeated crop losses to elephants, when livestock are taken by predators, and when retaliatory killing of wildlife follows, both communities and wildlife lose. Addressing HWC is therefore not a social welfare measure it is a conservation imperative. Communities that are protected from conflict are far more likely to support and participate in conservation.
MKT’s approach to HWC mitigation is multi-layered: physical infrastructure (fencing and one-way gates), habitat connectivity (the elephant corridor), community engagement and education, rapid response by ranger teams, and technology-enabled monitoring. No single method eliminates conflict on its own; the combination is what works.
Mount Kenya Elephant Corridor
In 2009, MKT spearheaded the construction of the 9.8-kilometre Mt. Kenya Elephant Corridor in partnership with Kisima Farm, Marania Farm, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Rhino Ark. The corridor includes a road underpass beneath the Nanyuki–Isiolo/Meru highway a feat of engineering that took two years to complete. On New Year’s Day 2010, an elephant known as ‘Tony’ became the first animal to walk through the underpass, just one day after the fences were connected.
Today the corridor is maintained by MKT and handles over 2,000 elephant journeys annually, alongside crossings by 19 other key species including lion, zebra and buffalo. The corridor has restored migration routes, reduced human-elephant conflict in adjacent areas, increased genetic diversity within the elephant population, and is widely regarded as one of East Africa’s most successful conservation infrastructure projects.
In 2018, MKT collaborated with Rhino Ark, KWS and local communities to install two automated one-way gates in the Imenti Forest Reserve. These gates allow elephants following their historic seasonal migration route between Samburu/Shaba and the Imenti Forest to move into the forest reserve without being able to exit onto adjacent farmland. Sensor technology and camera traps monitor all elephant movements at the gates, contributing to early warning, conflict response and long-term population monitoring.
Community Engagement
Physical infrastructure is necessary but not sufficient. Long-term coexistence requires communities to understand wildlife behaviour, to have practical tools for protecting their crops and livestock, and to have a stake in wildlife conservation rather than viewing it as a threat to their livelihoods. MKT’s community ranger teams play a key role here by educating and engaging with farming households across the six counties, and responding rapidly to HWC incidents.
Research published in Conservation Science and Practice (University of Oxford and Save the Elephants, 2024) found that beehive fences using live honey bee hives as a natural deterrent deter elephants from approaching farms up to 86% of the time during peak crop seasons and further enhance livelihoods. This nature-based approach has been adopted widely. MKT works with communities to explore and integrate locally-appropriate deterrent methods alongside its fencing and corridor infrastructure.