Restoring Athi-Kaputei savanna ecosystems in ILRI Kapiti Wildlife Conservancy as model for multiple benefits to conservation, livestock, and climate change mitigation

The ILRI Kapiti Wildlife Conservancy is among the foremost areas in Africa for research on livestock production and the effects of climate change on the environment, livestock and wildlife of rangelands in Kenya, East Africa, and the world. The research conducted here supports the livestock sector in Kenya and across the continent by providing jobs, economic growth and a pathway out of poverty for smallholder farmers. The climate is semi‐arid with average precipitation of 550 mm/year at 1,620–1,900 m in elevation. With rangeland conditions varying from good to excellent quality, productive soils and abundant large wildlife, the ILRI Kapiti Wildlife Conservancy and its surroundings are ideally suited to dual rangeland livestock production and conservation of savanna wildlife and ecosystems. Research on livestock production and the environment in rangelands is the predominant and primary land use in the conservancy. While most of Kapiti has good rangeland health, there is some degradation, primarily in terms of bush encroachment, a common form of degradation in rangelands globally. As a result, there is a need—and an opportunity—to restore Kapiti’s rangelands to reverse ongoing degradation, improve rangeland conditions and, in doing so, conserve ecosystems and wildlife, improve livestock health and efficiency and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of wildfires. To achieve these goals, evidence‐based action research to adaptively refine restoration will result in restoration that eventually covers the entire rangeland over multiple years. The focus of this plan is to provide a draft framework for the long-term, large-scale reversal of bush encroachment, the main source of rangeland degradation in Kapiti. The plan will be updated periodically as lessons are learned, evidence is gathered and analyzed, and the most effective and efficient restoration techniques are identified and better understood.