Effect of ecotourism enterprises on the socio- economic development of communities living adjacent to Wildlife protected areas in Kenya: a case Study of gold-ecorated lodges

That socio-economic development is the most important challenge facing the human race cannot be overstated. As a result, many avenues have been pursued to attain it; key among them being ecotourism. While some scholars emphasize the potential of ecotourism in promoting the well being of local people, existing statistics reveal that a majority (70%) of people living adjacent to wildlife protected areas continue to suffer from the absence of fundamental opportunities to lead decent and satisfying lives. Furthermore, the incidence of poverty in Kenya is comparatively greater where tourist activities are highest such as Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Taita Taveta, Laikipia and Kwale. This has led to the question: under what conditions and what processes of interaction do communities, protected areas and tourism operations mutually benefit each other? The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ecotourism enterprises on the socioeconomic development of communities living adjacent to wildlife protected areas. The study was conducted in Basecamp Masai Mara and Elephant Pepper Camp in Maasai Mara National Reserve, and Campi ya Kanzi in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Specifically, the study investigated the effect of ecotourism enterprises on social and economic development of communities living adjacent to the three gold ecorated lodges; constraints hindering local community participation in ecotourism enterprises; and local community support and aspiration for ecotourism development. The study adopted the survey and case study research designs. Both secondary and primary sources of data were utilized. The target population included members of communities living adjacent to the three eco-lodges, who were sampled through convenience sampling to get a sample size of 384 respondents for semi-structured questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to recruit key informants such as area chiefs, managers of the eco-lodges, members of cultural manyattas and chairmen of group ranches for interviews and focus group discussions. Data was analyzed quantitatively using means, median, standard deviation and Mann-Whitney U test and qualitatively using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that ecotourism enterprises in the two study areas have been instrumental in the provision of education and health services. In spite of this, these enterprises were ineffective in facilitating local community access to basic needs especially through access to credit ( =2.73, =1.442, p=0.001) and grazing pastures ( =2.75, =1.513, p=0.000). Findings further revealed that most of the revenue (70%) generated from the eco-tourism enterprises benefits only a few members of the community thus creating conflicts among community members. In this regard, the findings established that host community‟s support for ecotourism development was dependent on the contribution of ecotourism enterprises to community cohesion and pride ( =4.01, =1.123, p=0.027). This calls for an ecotourism policy that will not only facilitate local community‟s access to basic needs through establishing fair and lasting economic partnerships with investors, but also ensure community cohesion and pride, enhanced socio-economic welfare and development.