The Masai Mara Ecosystem in southwestern Kenya, comprising the Masai Mara National Reserve
and the adjoining group ranches holds a spectacular concentration of wildlife and is home to the iconic
Masai pastoralists and their livestock. The annual wildlife migration offers a great wildlife experience
to visiting tourists and was named in September 2007 by the international media as one of the new
Seventh Wonders of the World in a global popularity poll contest. The Masai Mara Ecosystem
however, embodies many of the current issues in biodiversity conservation. Despite being a vast area
incorporating a major protected area, its considerable large wildlife species require access to large,
unprotected dispersal ranges inhabited, and increasingly transformed, by agro-pastoral human
communities. Expanding commercial farming, tourism and other human activities on land within and
adjacent to the national reserve is threatening the sustainable coexistence of the region’s pastoral
people with the wildlife populations. The habitat loss and wildlife population decline in Masai Mara
has been attributed to population growth and spread of cultivation [14,15]. Although habitat
fragmentation is thought to be responsible for the decline of many wildlife species, the Masai Mara
Ecosystem has many confounding variables making trends analysis difficult because of the
unpredictable nature of various causes and factors [16]. The Masai Mara Ecosystem has different land
zones with different land uses. The national reserve, owned and controlled by two local governments is
exclusively for wildlife tourism and conservation. The adjacent group ranches on the other hand are
owned privately or communally and have multiple land uses, ranging from pastoralism, small-scale
farming, mechanized faming and wildlife tourism. This ecosystem also lies on the border with
Tanzania, where the socio-economic, political and land tenure systems are different [15]. Wildlife
movement across the borders from Tanzania is another important phenomenon. Animals migrating into
Masai Mara from Tanzania occupy the national reserve and the adjoining group ranches, while resident
wildlife species also migrate between the reserve and the adjoining dispersal areas within the
ecosystem [17]. These animal migrations show that the protected areas within the ecosystem are not adequate for the protection and viability of migratory wildlife species in the ecosystem and that what
happens in the adjoining group ranches have a direct influence on wildlife in the protected areas.
Although a few studies pertaining to wildlife population trends have been conducted in Masai
Mara [14,18,19], very little has been done to analyze land use/cover changes and the impact these
changes have on the Masai Mara Ecosystem. In addition, these studies have concentrated on wildlife
declines without considering the driving forces and thus do not provide sufficient insights into the
spatial temporal dynamics of these changes. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of land use/cover
changes and wildlife population dynamics that also considers the primary driving forces behind these
changes is needed in order to help in formulating a sustainable development policy for the ecosystem.
How has land use/cover changed in Masai Mara and what are the primary drivers of land use and
land cover changes? Are these changes responsible for the declining wildlife population? This study
analyzes the long term land use/cover changes and wildlife population trends in the Masai Mara
Ecosystem. It summarizes the changes in land use/cover, wildlife and livestock population dynamics,
and examines the factors potentially driving these changes. We also present a conceptual model to help
explain the interactions of the various factors influencing changes in the Masai Mara Ecosystem. This
study was accomplished by integrating multispectral remote sensing data and in-depth field studies
together with socio economic, demographic, wildlife data sets and existing research knowledge on the
Masai community’s way of life in the ecosystem.