“Addressing human-lion conflict through governance and policy”
University
University of Nairobi
Area of Focus
Wildlife Management
Education
Margaret Muriuki is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Governance and Management at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She completed both an undergraduate degree and her MSc in Wildlife Management at the University of Eldoret and Moi University. She works as a tutorial fellow at Karatina university in the department of tourism and hospitality management.
Research & Work
Margaret’s work is driven by a desire to bring positive change to African societies that can scale up their economic development. She believes that Wildlife Management can contribute to this goal through the principles of ecotourism that ensure conservation benefits accrue to communities living with wildlife. Margaret’s research is focused on the Amboseli ecosystem in south-east Kenya, an arid to semi-arid region dominated by pastoral communities and vast wildlife, that has contributed to a growth in conservation and tourism enterprises in the region. Human-lion conflict, however, threatens both lion conservation and the livelihoods of the pastoral communities in the Amboseli ecosystem. Top down protectionist policies have in the past contributed to negative attitudes towards lions and retaliatory killings. Community based conservation has been hailed as an alternative that reconciles the goals of conservation and community’s livelihoods. Margaret’s research on governance seeks to evaluate the influence of community conservation on lion population. Her findings will help identify policy formulation and implementation gaps that can be bridged to ensure enhanced human-lion coexistence.
Publications:
