Fjallraven retail store
1510 Platte Street, Denver at 7 PM
One of the natural wonders of the world is the annual migration of white-bearded wildebeest across the Serengeti-Maasai Mara savanna ecosystem of Kenya and Tanzania. The Maasai people are pastoralists and have herded cattle and coexisted with wildlife in savanna ecosystems for hundreds of years. Changing land ownership is altering open range by increasing the population of other non-pastoral tribes with differing land management practices.
Fences are being constructed altering both traditional Maasai herding practices and impeding the wildebeest migration. Maasai are no longer able to kill problem lions to protect their herds, altering both predator management and social structures. International wildlife tourism, a huge economic driver, much of which is based on the timing of the wildebeest migration, is threatened.
Eric Reson will discuss the balance of wildlife and pastoral management from a social and environmental perspective.
Reson is the Chief Programmes Officer and member of the Senior Management Team at the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, where he oversees programmes design, implementation, and evaluation of effectiveness while helping to promote and diversify funding through effective resource stewardship. His portfolio includes governance, natural resource management, education, and enterprise.
Before joining MMWCA, Reson worked as a landscape ecologist for the African Foundation Wildlife based in Samburu, where he oversaw research on the gravy zebras, lions, rhinos, wild dogs, and reticulated giraffes. He is an active researcher with ongoing studies on determining annual vulture mortality in southern Kenya. He holds a Master of Science in Wildlife Biology (Clemson University) and is enrolled as a Ph.D. student at the University of KwaZulu Natal.