MINISTRY OF TOURISM, WILDLIFE AND HERITAGE TENDER MARCH 2023 

State Department for Wildlife 

REQUEST FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR MBALE
CONSERVANCY, TSAVO ECOSYSTEM, TAITA TAVETA COUNTY – SDW/RFP/005/20222-2023 

TERMS OF REFERENCE
1. Background to the Consultancy
The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage in partnership with UNDP is implementing the GEF funded; The GEF-6/
UNDP Project “Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Kenya through an Integrated Approach” (IWT-Kenya).
The project recognizes that while the country has made advances in combating poaching of large bodied wildlife
such as rhino and elephant, poaching and illegal wildlife trade remains a threat and continue to contribute to loss of
wildlife in Kenya.
Under component 3; Strengthening Community Wildlife Conservancies in Tsavo and Maasai Mara Ecosystems Reduce
Poaching and Improve Community Benefits and Co-management; the project prioritizes interventions that result in
outcomes that increase community engagement to live, manage and benefit from wildlife. This will be realised through
increased integrated landscape management practices and restoration plans to maintain forest ecosystem services and
sustain wildlife. The activity targets to establish three new conservancies and expand the area under community conserved
areas by 23,000ha.
The component focuses on developing, in a participatory manner, integrated conservancy management plans to lay
the foundation for locally-managed wildlife and grazing systems through community conservancies. The conservancy
plans once implemented will ensure that benefits from wildlife conservation and sustainable livestock grazing accrue
directly to, and are fairly distributed among, the community members. Further the planning process shall identify viable
enterprises to be under the UNDP’s small-grants facility and in future the conservancy Trust Fund to be operationalized
through the Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association (KWCA) to ensure more long-term access to micro-financing. Support
to the conservancies is aimed at increasing the average annual income per household in the target conservancies
from wildlife conservation and implementation of Sustainable land Management (SLM) practices while ensuring women
and youth and involved in conservancy plans and benefit sharing. The planning process designed will comply with
Kenya’s guidelines in preparing conservation plans and will integrate the First Line of defence (FLOD) approach.
The Conservancy Natural Resources Management Plan will be aligned with the Tsavo and Maasai Mara ecosystem plans
and the Taita Taveta and Narok County Spatial plans and in line with the country’s tourism strategies to ensure wildlife
tourism, livestock production and carbon credits among others are optimized as key source of income to the conservancy
and the local community. The plans will outline the resources required to implement priority IWT interventions
and to further attract investments, making the conservancies sustainable in the long-term. The conservancy plans will
be developed in close collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association
(MMWCA) and Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA), all of whom are project partners.
2.0 Scope of the Consultancy
The project implementation team identified Mbale conservancy in the Tsavo ecosystem for the targeted support. The
conservancy occupy areas considered significant elephant corridor facing risk of habitat conversion due to absence of
structured conservation of the elephants and other wildlife. Furthermore, the area considered neighbours agricultural
communities with human-wildlife conflict being a threat. Land degradation, charcoal burning and the risk of conversion
of the wildlife areas to cultivation lands are threats to be addressed through improved planning and management.
Mbale Conservancy: Mbale Ranching (DA) Company Limited is a public company started in 1974 and registered in 2015
with a total of 54,000 acres with 600 registered shareholders and offices in Msau Market on Mtomwagodi-Wundanyi
Road. Most of shareholders come from Mbale, Rong’e Juu and Rong’e Locations in Wundanyi and Mwatate Sub-Counties
respectively with 15% of the current shareholders are female. The source of investment for the ranch is the share
capital from shareholder, loans, tenants who pay grazing fees, small scale miners and uses BOT approach for infrastructure
development.
The Ranch is situated in Kasigau Location in Voi Division 60 Km from Voi Town. It has immense potential for ranching,
mining, agriculture, solar energy and tourism as it borders Tsavo West National Park and Mkomanzi Park which is in
Tanzania. The ranch is a major dispersal area for wildlife from the national park making it a wildlife hotspot area especially
during the dry season. Due to its’ location, it is exclusively positioned as part of the Kasigau Wildlife corridor that
connects the TWNP to the ranches in the south and ultimately to Tsavo East National Park (TENP).
3.0 Objectives of the Consultancy
The objective of the Consultancy is to develop Management Plan for Mbale Conservancy in the Tsavo Ecosystem in accordance
with the Section 44 of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (WCMA), 2013 and the Planning Framework
provided under the Fifth Schedule of WCMA,2013. The management plan will ensure integrity of the conservation
area and property by creating a common understanding between stakeholders on the purpose of the conservation area,
its important values and the overall goals of management and use. In addition, for the conservancy to be registered under
the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, then it has to meet this requirement by developing a management
plan.
4.0 The Terms of Reference
4.1 Broad Terms of Reference
The State Department of Wildlife, Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage intends to commission a consultant/consultancy
firm to carry out Preparation of management plans for Mbale Conservancy. The consultant/consultancy firm will
be required to:
• Determine the current status of the conservancy in terms of resource values and existing management structures
• Prepare comprehensive management plans for the conservancy
4.2 Specific Terms of Reference
The Consultant shall:
• Defining the geographic scope of the plan
• Carry out a literature review on best practices in conservancy governance and management and identify factors in
conservancy sustainability
• Review the FLOD approach and legal considerations in developing, approval, gazetting of conservancy
• Engage the project implementation teams to understand project components and key outcomes proposed
• Engage the relevant conservancy partners and conservancy boards and management to document progress in
conservancy establishment
• Visit the conservancies and undertake situational analysis and SWOT
• Identification of the Exceptional Resource Values
• Map resources and conservancy attributes needed for conservancy planning
• Identifying/reviewing of key problems and opportunities to be addressed by the plan
• Facilitate stakeholder planning meetings and workshops develop conservancy programs and activities in the short
and long-term
• Collect and collate information relevant to conservancy planning
• Developing a Resource Base Inventory for the Conservancy
• Developing a GIS database for the Conservancy
• Synthesise planning meeting outputs and other planning information and:
– Describing the Conservancy Vision and Purpose statements
– Coming up with a Draft Management plan through four working group meetings (Ecology, Community, Security,
Tourism)
• Reviewing of programme purpose statements and guiding principles
• Developing of management programme objectives and actions
• Developing/reviewing of zonation scheme of draft plan with stakeholders
• Presentation of final plan as indicated in the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (WMCA), 2013 (Section
44 and Schedule 5)
• Facilitate signing of the final management plans by the plans’ owners
• Prepare the gazette notice for gazettement of the approved management plans
• Facilitate the gazettement of the final approved management plans by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Wildlife
• Ensure the plans being developed are in line with WCMA, 2013, appropriate to the conservancies, and realistic for
conservancy managers to implement
5.0 Expected Outputs/Deliverables
• A scoping inception report
• Resource base inventory of the conservancy
• Reports on proceedings of community consultative meetings during preparation of the plan
• Draft Conservancy Management Plan for Mbale Conservancy
• Final Conservancy Management Plan for Mbale Conservancy
6.0 Team Composition & Qualification Requirements for the Key Experts
The team should be composed of the following:
• Natural Resource/Wildlife Management Specialist (Lead Consultant)
• Social Scientist (Support Consultant)
• Legal Expert, and (Support Consultant)
• Finance expert (Support Consultant)
The Lead Consultant should meet the following qualifications:
• A Master’s of Science degree in, Natural Resource Management, Conservation Biology, Wildlife Management, or
related field
• At least ten years of experience practising in the fields of Wildlife Conservation and Environmental Management,
Environmental Policy, Ecology or a related field.
• At least 3 similar assignments in the past
• Excellent community engagement and mobilisation skills
• Good report writing and presentation skills
The Support Consultants should Meeting the following qualifications:
• A Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in their relevant field of specialization. For the Finance Specialist, he should also
have CPA (K) certification up to the last level.
• At least 5 years in their relevant field of specialization
• Excellent community engagement and mobilisation skills
• Good report writing and presentation
7.0 Submission of Technical and Financial Proposals
Eligible individual consultants should submit the following:
1. Technical and financial proposals
2. Curriculum Vitae (CV) of consultant(s)
3. Copies of all Certificates for Consultants undertaking the assignment
Interested Consultants may obtain Request for Proposal document from the Ministry of Tourism Wildlife and Heritage
website (www.tourism.go.ke) or the National Treasury suppliers’ portal (http://tenders.go.ke).
Duly Request for proposal documents in plain sealed envelopes clearly marked “Provision of Consultancy Services for
Development of Conservancy Management Plan for Mbale Conservancy Tsavo Ecosystem in Taita tavete county”
and bearing no indication of the identity of the Consultant should be addressed to The Principal Secretary, State Department
for Wildlife, P. O. Box 41394 – 00100, and be deposited into the tender box at the reception of State Department
for Wildlife, NSSF Building, Block-A, Eastern Wing, 15th Floor, on or before 11:00 Noon, on 28th March, 2023.
Bids will be opened immediately thereafter in the presence of consultants or their representatives who choose to attend.
PRINCIPAL SECRETARY
STATE DEPARTMENT FOR WILDLIFE

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