The Kenya Wildlife Service, otherwise known by the initialism

Acronym and initialism

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...

 KWS, is a Kenyan state corporation that was established in 1990 to conserve and manage Kenya’s wildlife. It is established under an Act of Parliament Cap 376 (The Wildlife Conservation and Management Act) with the mandate to conserve and manage wildlife in Kenya, and to enforce related laws and regulations.
It manages the biodiversity of the country, protecting and conserving the flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 and fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

.

KWS manages the National Parks and Reserves

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. The money collected as entrance fees in the parks is used to help the conservation

Habitat conservation

Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range...

 of the plants and animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

s within the parks.

National Parks and Reserves

Kenya has 35 designated national parks and reserves:

• Aberdare National Park
  Aberdare National Park
  - External links :* * * *...
  
  
• Amboseli National Park
• Arabuko Sokoke National Park
  Arabuko Sokoke National Park
  The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest is located on the coast of Kenya, 110 km north of Mombassa and is protected as a national Forest Reserve. The Arabuko-Sokoke National Park is only a small portion of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve, a few square kilometres in size and is located on the north-western...
  
  
• Arawale National Reserve
  Arawale National Reserve
  The Arawale National Reserve is a designated conservation area managed by the Garissa County in assistance with the Kenya Wildlife Service. It lies in North Eastern Province of Kenya, 77 km south of the town of Garissa. The reserve covers an area of . To the west, it is bordered by the Tana...
  
  
• Bisanadi National Reserve
• Boni National Reserve
  Boni National Reserve
  The Boni National Reserve is a national reserve for conservation and lies in the North Eastern Province of Kenya in the Ijara District. The reserve covers an area of and is managed by Kenya Wildlife Service. It was gazetted in 1976 as a dry season sanctuary for elephants in Ijara District, Lamu...
  
  
• Central Island National Park
• Chyulu Hills National Park
• Hell's Gate National Park
  Hell's Gate National Park
  Hell's Gate National Park lies south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, north west of Nairobi. Hell's Gate National Park is named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once a tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley. It was established in 1984. A small national park, it is...
  
  
• Kakamega Forest Reserve
  Kakamega Forest
  Kakamega Forest is situated in Western Province Kenya, north-west of the capital Nairobi, and near to the border with Uganda. It is said to be Kenya's last remnant of the ancient Guineo-Congolian rainforest that once spanned the continent....
  
  
• Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park
  Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park
  Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park is situated on the southern coast of Kenya near Shimoni and south of Wasini Island in Kwale District near the Tanzanian border...
  
  
• Kisumu Impala Sanctuary
• Kora National Park
  Kora National Park
  Kora National Park is located in Coast Province, Kenya. The park covers an area of 1,788 square kilometres. It is located 125 kilometres east of Mount Kenya. The park was initially gazetted as a nature reserve in 1973...
  
  
• Lake Nakuru National Park
• Losai National Reserve
• Malindi Marine National Park
• Malka Mari National Park
• Marsabit National Reserve
• Meru National Park
  Meru National Park
  Meru National Park is a Kenyan Game park located east of Meru, 350 km from Nairobi. Covering an area of 870 km², it is one of the most famous known parks of Kenya. It has abundant rainfall, 635–762 mm in the west of the park and 305–356 mm in the east. The rainfall results in...
  
  
• Mombasa Marine Park
• Mount Elgon National Park
  Mount Elgon National Park
  Mount Elgon National Park is a national park 140 km North East of Lake Victoria. The park covers an area of 1279 km² and is bisected by the border of Kenya and Uganda. The Ugandan part of the park covers 1110 km² while the Kenyan part covers 169 km²...
  
  
• Mount Kenya National Park
  Mount Kenya
  Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...
  
  
• Mount Longonot National Park
  Mount Longonot
  Mount Longonot is a dormant stratovolcano located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, Africa. It is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s. Its name is derived from the Maasai word oloonong'ot, meaning "mountains of many spurs" or "steep ridges".Mount Longonot is...
  
  
• Mwea National Reserve
• Nairobi National Park
  Nairobi National Park
  Nairobi National Park is a national park in Kenya. Established in 1946, the national park was Kenya's first. It is located approximately 7 kilometres south of the centre of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, with only a fence separating the park's wildlife from the metropolis. Nairobi's skyscrapers...
  
  
• Ndere Island National Reserve
• Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park
• Ruma National Park
• Saiwa Swamp National Park
  Saiwa Swamp National Park
  Saiwa Swamp National Park is located near Kitale, Rift Valley Province, Kenya. It is the smallest national park in Kenya, only 3 km², and was created as habitat for the Sitatunga, a rare aquatic antelope.-External links:*...
  
  
• Samburu National Reserve
  Samburu National Reserve
  The Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro river in Kenya; on the other side of the river is the Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Northern Kenya. It is 165 km² in size and 350 kilometers from Nairobi and ranges in altitude from 800 to 1230m above sea level...
  
  
• Shaba National Reserve
  Shaba National Reserve
  Shaba National Reserve is a protected area in northern Kenya to the east of the Samburu and Buffalo Springs national reserves. Together, the three reserves form a large protected area....
  
  
• Shimba Hills National Reserve
  Shimba Hills National Reserve
  The Shimba Hills National Reserve is a small National Park in the Coast Province of Kenya, 33 km from Mombasa and 15 km from the coast. The reserve is an area of coastal rainforest, woodland and grassland...
  
  
• Sibiloi National Park
  Sibiloi National Park
  Sibiloi National Park lies on the northeastern shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Established in 1973 by the government of Kenya for the protection of wildlife and palaeontological sites there, it covers 1570 km² and is internationally known for its fossils...
  
  
• Tana River Primate Reserve
  Tana River Primate Reserve
  Tana River Primate Reserve, totaling eleven square miles of scattered forest patches, was set aside in 1976 in order to protect the swampy forests of the Lower Tana River and two endangered primates, the Tana River Mangabey and the Tana River Red Colobus, that are found there.The reserve,...
  
  
• Tsavo East National Park
  Tsavo East National Park
  Tsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya at 11,747 square kilometres. Opened in April 1948, it is located near the village of Voi in the Taita-Taveta District of Coast Province. The park is divided into east and west sections by the A109 road and a railway...
  
  
• Tsavo West National Park
  Tsavo West National Park
  Tsavo West National Park is located in the Coast Province of Kenya. The park covers an area of 9,065 square kilometres. The A109 road Nairobi-Mombasa and a railway divides the park into east and west...
  
  
• Watamu Marine National Park
  Watamu Marine National Park
  Watamu Marine National Park and Reserve is located in Kenya. Established in 1968, it was one of Kenya's first marine parks. It is located about north of Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city. Its coral gardens are merely from the shore and are home to approximately 600 species of fish, 110...
  
  

Conservation Programmes

KWS runs specific programmes to assist Kenyan species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 and habitats

Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...

 that are in particular danger. They have forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 and wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

 conservation programmes, as well as specific elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

 and rhino

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

 projects to help them recover from poaching

Poaching

Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...

. The hirola

Hirola

The Hirola is an antelope species found in arid grassy plains in a pocket on the border between Kenya and Somalia. It's the only member of the genus Beatragus.Hirola are known as the "four-eyed antelope," due to their large preorbital glands...

, which is in danger of extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

, is also being monitored.

Within KWS there are several services, each responsible for a different area of work:

Community Wildlife Service

This branch of the KWS works outside the national parks. They work instead in areas such as wildlife corridor

Wildlife corridor

A wildlife corridor or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities . This allows an exchange of individuals between populations, which may help prevent the negative effects of inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity that often occur within...

s, and teach the communities living there to encourage conservation and look after their resources.

Security Services

The job of this service is to eliminate poaching in the national parks, and stop illegal trade.

Veterinary Services

This service ensures that healthy breeding populations of species are maintained throughout the country.

Training

KWS has a training centre based in Naivasha

Naivasha

Naivasha is a market town in Rift Valley Province, Kenya, lying north west of Nairobi. It is located on the shore of Lake Naivasha and along the Nairobi - Nakuru highway and Uganda Railway.Naivasha is part of the Nakuru District...

. KWS staff are taught here, and courses are also run for outside students in ecology and tourism.

Education

KWS run several education centres:

• Nairobi Safari Walk
• Nairobi Education Centre
• Lake Nakuru Education Centre
• Tsavo East Education Centre
• Tsavo West Education Centre

These are located inside National Parks, and run programs to encourage people to care for their environment. It is aimed at local people, particularly school groups, but is open to anyone.