Perez Olindo: Kenyan Wildlife Ecologist Who Pioneered Marine Parks

Pioneer Kenyan wildlife ecologist, wildlife pilot and Chief Game Warden, Dr Perez Olindo, is dead. Olindo became the first African Director of National Parks in Kenya when he was only 27.

He created a national Park system based on Kenya’s key ecosystems – Savanna, forest, mountain, fresh water and marine. He is the thinking behind the establishment of core protected area marine parks within marine reserves. You got that right. Olindo pioneered marine parks globally.

Olindo never stepped into an A Levels or master’s degree class. But when his university sent leading game wardens from the United States where he studied to review his work with the national parks, his peers, certified his thinking worthy of a philosophy doctorate.

Other than his work with the national parks, Olindo was the founder of the mobile wildlife conservation education unit (while a university student), a precursor to the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya. He was also pioneer ecologist for the Lake Basin Authority.

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Contrary to what most folks think, the policy framework behind the establishment of Kenya Wildlife Service was his brainchild. Richard Leakey merely took credit.

Widely blamed for the poaching of elephants and rhinos in the 1970s and 80s, he explained to me in a past interview that most of the poaching occurred outside national parks, where he held little or no control.

Olindo wasn’t good at working the press, so only Kenyans of an older generation may know of him or of his exploits. But he is a legendary figure, revered in wildlife research, conservation and management circles in Africa and across the globe.