UNDP (SF) FAO Assistance to the Range Management Division of the Kenya MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. December 1967. At least four-fifths of Kenya is rangeland, yet this vast area at present produces a gross output of only 2 (sterling) 14 million of which nearly 11 million is consumed by the pastoralists for their own subsistence. The Kenya Government has an ambitious integrated plan to develop a highly organised livestock industry with export potential. The UN Development Programme (Special Fund) is financing the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to the Range Management Division. The experts work on land use surveys, research into range management, wildlife biology, livestock improvement and bush control, as well as an overall planning and education. Wildlife must be considered in plans for the rangeland: it is a tourist attraction of great value to the country, and its meat may help to feed the people. But wildlife also has disadvantages: it may spread disease among cattle and compete for grazing. The future place of wildlife on Kenya's rangeland is being carefully studied by the project. Animals are frequently hunted from a helicopter and stunned with a drug-filled syringe shot from a gas-powered pistol, so that they can be examined and marked for future recording of their movements.
A stunned wildebeest is looked at by Mr. V. Bunderson (USA), right, head of the UNDP/FAO project team attached to Kenya's Range Management Division. With him are journalist, Rennie Airth, and two assistants.