Guides: Alumni Travel Reading Lists 2025: Kenya and Sustainable Wildlife Conservation

Kenya, Parks, Communities, Biodiversity

Flowers for Elephants: How a Conservation Movement in Kenya Offers Lessons for Us All by Peter Martell
Call Number: Hurst and Company
ISBN: 9781787386938
Publication Date: 2022
Peter Martell narrates the story of a conservation movement that began with an effort to save the quickly disappearing rhino and that led to the preservation of lands and created space for other species to thrive.
Conservation and Community in Kenya: Milking the Elephant by Carolyn K. Lesorogol
Call Number: Lexiington books
ISBN: 9781793650290
Publication Date: 2022
Lesorogol examines the complexity of simultaneously protecting biodiversity and the sustainability of local communities
Wildlife of East Africa by Martin B. Withers and David Hosking
Call Number: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691007373
Publication Date: 2002
An illustrated field guide to wildlife in East Africa
East African Wildlife by Philip Briggs and Ariadne Van Zandbergen
Call Number: Bradt Publications
ISBN: 9781841629209
Publication Date: 2016
This volume is meant to be an all-in-one handy reference guide to the region's wildlife
The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, and Primates by Richard D. Estes
Call Number: Chelsea Green
ISBN: 9781890132446
Publication Date: 1999
From the publisher: "The best field guide to observing and understanding the behavior of African mammals and an indispensable tool for naturalists traveling to Africa..."

Article from author above on the same topic: Lesorogol, C., Lesorogol, P. "Community-Based Wildlife Conservation on Pastoral Lands in Kenya: A New Logic of Production with Implications for the Future of Pastoralism." Human Ecology 52, 15–29 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-024-00482-9

Open access article -- available to read without a subscription.

PERSPECTIVE article in Frontiers in Conservation Science, July 4, 2024 Sec. Global Biodiversity Threats Volume 5 - 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2024.1385959

"Winning space for conservation: the growth of wildlife conservancies in Kenya" By Munira Anyonge Bashir, Nature Conservancy and Catholic University of East Africa and Edwin Wanyonyi, School of Business, Catholic University of East Africa, Nairobi. This open access article (free to read without subscription) discusses Kenya's conservation agenda and increased competition for natural resources

Figure 2 Statistics on conservation in conservancies from year 2021 (Source: KWCA, 2023). From the Article.

Kenya, Model in Sustainable Wildlife Conservation

Nature's Benefits in Kenya: An Atlas of Ecosystems and Human Well-being by World Resources Institute Staff
Call Number: Download a copy from the World Resources Institute
ISBN: 9781569736425
Publication Date: 2007
"This report provides a new approach to integrating spatial data on poverty and ecosystems in Kenya."

Kenya State of the Environment Report 2019-2021
The Director General
National Environment Management Authority

From the State of the Environment Report

Articles on Kenya in the open access (free to read -- no subscription necessary) Conservation and Society

Map 2: Proposed rhino corridor, Ukanda wa Vifaru, in Laikipia. From Settler Ecologies and the Future of Biodiversity: Insights from Laikipia, Kenya Conservation and Society22(1):1-13, Jan-Mar 2024.

Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya by Anne-Marie Deisser and Mugwima Njuguna, Editors
Call Number: UCL Press
ISBN: 9781910634837
Publication Date: 2016
This work reviews Kenya's 27 million years of natural history and the richness of its ancient and contemporary material culture. It then traces the conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and examines the role of natural and cultural heritage in social-economic development, and in conflict resolution
Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Daphne Sheldrick
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. SD411.52.S44 A3
ISBN: 9780374104573
Publication Date: 2012
This work describes Daphne and David Sheldrick's campaign to end poaching and to conserve Kenya's wildlife. It also highlights their unique approach to working with wildlife and especially their work raising orphans so that they can be returned to the wild.

Life and Culture

Nairobi Noir by Peter Kimani, editor
Call Number: Akashic Books
ISBN: 9781617757549
Publication Date: 2020
This is the first East African installment in the Akashic Noir Series., which features contemporary noir crime fiction specific to world urban capitals.
Cultural Production and Social Change in Kenya by Kimani Njogu and G. Oluoch-Olunya
ISBN: 9789966974372
Publication Date: 2007
Looks at the relationship between art and society, with special reference to Kenya and its cultural leadership
Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi by Kenda Mutongi
Call Number: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226471426
Publication Date: 2017
Matatus are the colorful minibuses that transport huge numbers of people around the city. They can be ramshackle or glittering vehicles for advertisement. Kenda Mutongi provides the history of the matatu from the 1960s to the present. Many illustrations.

Transportation in Kenya by Emzily used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 Generic Deed

The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Call Number: Penguin Classics
ISBN: 9780143107491
Publication Date: 2015
From the publisher: "A 50th-anniversary edition of one of the most powerful novels by the great Kenyan author and Nobel Prize nominee."
Staying Maasai? Livelihoods, Conservation, and Development in East African Rangelands by Katherine Homewood, editor, et al.
ISBN: 9780387874913
Publication Date: 2009
This publication focuses on the livelihoods of the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania and examines the successes and failures of a community conservation-based approach to development in Maasailand from differing political, economic, localized social, and historical perspectives.