Elephants or avocados: a Kenyan dilemma

The impressive sight of elephants roaming beneath Mount Kilimanjaro has long brought wildlife-lovers to Amboseli National Park on Kenya's border with Tanzania.

But their ability to move freely may be under threat from an unexpected adversary - avocados.

Kenyan agricultural company KiliAvo Fresh has farms near Amboseli across some 175 acres of land.

Now, it's building nurseries with the intention of growing the fruit - whose popularity is growing worldwide due to its high nutritional value.

Upset conservationists say the plans and an electric fence on the farm will block the crucial Kimana Wildlife Corridor, where elephants move between three national parks...

and strangle one of the region's most beloved and important safaris.

Samuel Kaanki chairs the Amboseli Conservancies Association:

"There will be a problem because Amboseli National Park will not have a place where animals can go and graze. The sanctuary will die because it depends on animals from Amboseli and if that corridor is closed, the sanctuary will die. // The way for animals to go to Chyulu or Tsavo will be blocked and that will be a big problem. It will cause a big human-wildlife conflict because they will try to pass through routes inhabited by people. This is what made us bring our land together to create that corridor.”

Some 2,000 Amboseli elephants, dozens of other wildlife species, and cows owned by local Maasai people could be affected by the avocado farm.

In a dispute, KiliAvo said it obtained the land legally, and then received government approval in mid-2020 to begin work.

Here's shareholder and farm manager Jeremiah Salaash:

"It is another source of employment and it is another source of making their land to have value, so local people are really very happy about the project."

A government agency halted the ordered works on the project last September - and said it wanted to revoke earlier decisions that gave it the go-ahead.

KiliAvo has challenged that in Kenya's environmental tribunal, where its lawyers say the case is pending.