Il Ngwesi is wholly owned by the local community

Il Ngwesi is a 16,500-acre group ranch – this means that the 499 families that inhabit the land collectively own the ranch. With the help of Lewa, the community at Il Ngwesi is now contributing to the protection of wildlife on their land. Their incorporation began slowly, initially local herdsmen were provided with radios to report poaching incidents, but as time progressed the community began to understand the benefits of having wildlife on their land, domestic and foreign visitors were attracted, and with them came a source of revenue and employment.

The introduction of eco-tourism and other revenue generating activities (honey gathering, furniture and rug making) has meant that the dependency of the Maasai on livestock has reduced. All profits from these activities are reinvested into the community for schools, clinics, bursaries, water supplies and group ranch operations including security against cattle rustling and poaching. In addition to the direct benefits to the communities there has been a dramatic regeneration of vegetation and a reduction in soil erosion resulting in an increase in wildlife.

Combined with the construction of a stunning award winning eco-tourism lodge (that is wholly owned by the community), Il Ngwesi is attracting international and domestic tourism, which in turn brings valuable revenue and a sense of pride to the communities in what they are doing. There is a unique symbiosis at Il Ngwesi between the communities, tourism and the wildlife. Wildlife of all types has returned to Il Ngwesi in unprecedented numbers. Groups of over 500 elephant can be seen in the rainy season, lion are abundant as are impala, giraffe, waterbuck and kudu. The improved vegetation and security has meant that wildlife now view Il Ngwesi as a safe haven.

Koiyaki Guide School

The Koiyaki Guide School & Wilderness Camp adjoins the northern boundary of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, and is an important dispersal area for the wildlife. It forms the northern-most end of the great Serengeti-Mara wildebeest migration and supports a healthy population of lions, leopards, cheetahs, and a great diversity of ungulates and other mammalian and avian species. The northern section of the Group Ranch is infested with tsetse and is un-utilized by livestock. This has resulted in low utilization of the land meaning it is of no benefit to the Maasai living in the surrounding areas.

Community work at Koiyaki

The Koiyaki Guide School & Wilderness Camp is owned and managed by the Maasai community. The aim of the project is to equip local Maasai people - through practical training - with skills necessary for their full participation in the conservation and management of wildlife and related enterprises through enrolment in the Koiyaki Guiding School. This will enhance the conservation of the Mara wildlife dispersal zone by converting a tsetse fly infested region already threatened by encroachment by farmers into an economically viable conservation area.

80% of the staff employed in Tourism in the Mara is not local to the area as the Maasai people lack the required skills. The Guiding School aims to train local Maasai youths with the skills required in the tourism industry. The school has already galvanized the support of all hotels and tour operators in the Mara region, who have recognized the huge need for this initiative and the major contribution it can make to safeguard the future of the Mara and its valuable tourism industry.

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy has become renowned world wide for its innovative and highly successful conservation strategies for the wildlife of northern Kenya.

Lewa is a 62,000-acre privately owned wildlife reserve that is home to endangered species including black and white rhino, elephant, Grevy’s zebra (it holds 20% of the world’s population) and sitatunga. Formerly a cattle ranch, Lewa officially became a non-profit making conservancy in 1994. Since then the initiative has expanded under the care of Ian Craig – an exceptional conservationist with the vision to have identified a clear paradigm for the future of wildlife protection.

Lewa’s rhino population currently stands at 43 black rhino and 37 white rhino. This incredible success is due to three main factors: the size of LWC, the vegetation (Lewa has good browse for black rhino and plenty of forage for white rhino) and security. Lewa is surrounded by an electric fence, except for a small gap in the northern boundary, which the rhino cannot access. It also has a highly effective and well-trained team of game guards that monitor the rhino daily recording their positions, new births and matings.

Community work at Lewa

Lewa is actively involved in promoting conservation both within its boundaries but perhaps its greatest achievement is in spreading the message throughout the ecologically important community areas to its north. Since the early 1990s, Lewa has facilitated the development of five community conservation areas (Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust, Il Ngwesi, Lekurruki, Ngare Ndare Forest Trust and Kalama).

Local communities are converting large areas of land away from their traditional subsistence practices, that become unviable with growing populations and a degrading habitat, and instead are dedicating it to wildlife and habitat conservation. Wildlife, which was once regarded as a source of food, is now viewed as a form of land use through which communities can derive an income. Without the nurturing and technical support of Lewa and Ian Craig, it is likely that wildlife would be on the way to extinction in these areas.

There could be no more impressive culmination to the trip.

Maasai Preservation Trust (MPT)

On the lava flows at the base of Kilimanjaro live the last remaining wild Black rhino in Kenya. Almost poached to extinction in the latter half of the twentieth century, a recent upturn in poaching has led the Imbirikani community to implement anti-poaching measures and a level of rhino security.

Community work at the MPT

The project has the full backing from the local Imbirikani community as it helps to generate revenue through tourism to the area. The community members also benefit from having the game scouts in the area as they help stop illegal activities such as meat poaching, charcoal burning and illegal timber harvesting.

Namunyak

The Mathews Mountain Range of northern Kenya is one of the last great stretches of pristine African wilderness, where high-forested peaks shadow semi-desert plains. The area encompasses some of the most significant undeveloped, unprotected and important wildlife areas in Kenya outside its National Parks. The Namunyak conservation area encompasses 75,000 acres of this wilderness in the South East of the Mathews Ranges.

Namunyak is community-managed

By liasing with the Maasai communities of Il Ngwesi and Lekurruki, the Samburu people of Namunyak have turned their land, which is of very marginal use for grazing, over to wildlife conservation and tourism. Correctly managed they have learnt that the land can generate a more sustainable income for the community and also protect the elephant herds and their habitat.

Their major source of revenue comes from a lodge, Sarara, nestled into the lower slopes of Waragress Mountain with views of the great amphitheatre of the Mathews Range. The Trust employs a team of rangers, who equipped with radios, constantly patrol the area and report on any poaching/illegal activity. The rangers maintain the stability and safety of the area, with stunning results. For the wildlife of the area the land is now a haven, and where once they were poached they now return in huge numbers.

Namunyak is a founder member of the Northern Rangelands Trust, and is one of Africa’s best examples of eco-tourism being used in order both to support practical conservation and to bring financial security to the local community.

Community work at Ol Pejeta

Ol Pejeta is a 90,000-acre wildlife conservancy situated between the foot hills of the Aberdares and the magnificent snowcapped Mount Kenya. The conservancy boasts an astounding variety of wildlife, including the chimpanzees of the Sweetwaters sanctuary.

Community work at Ol Pejeta

Community support is an important part of Ol Pejeta’s work: the conservancy seeks to develop the funding necessary to pay for wildlife conservation work, and to provide financial assistance to projects that assist the people living within neighbouring communities. All projects supported are assessed on a case-by-case basis, and must contain some element of community contribution. Those selected provide varied services to the local community, including: health, education, water, roads, provision of agricultural extension services and the development of community based eco-tourism ventures.

Based on regular socio-economic surveys, Ol Pejeta conservancy aims to provide the support necessary to address real needs, and to make a real difference to the lives, of the people who live near by.

The Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT)

The Northern Rangelands Trust was established by the Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly: The Honourable Francis Ole Kaparo. The Trust’s purpose is to unite communities, government and the private sector across an area of northern Kenya the size of Wales. It functions as an umbrella organization and aims to address homegrown problems and solve them with long-lasting local solutions. Different interest groups are connected by the shared goal of collectively initiating community-led institutions as a foundation for investment in community development and wildlife conservation.

The Northern Rangelands Trust is community-led

The Northern Rangelands Trust evolved from the simple fact that neighbouring efforts are clearly stronger working together than working individually. The Trust recognises both conservation and community development can benefit from cooperative use of a common resource: wildlife. The Trust’s membership is geographically defined by the footprint of the Samburu elephant population, which today numbers 5,500 animals. The very future of these elephants is dependent on the goodwill of the communities owning the land through which the elephants’ historic migratory routes pass. A decision by any one community within this area could have far reaching effects on the entire ecosystem, the role of the Trust is to make these connections happen and keep that migration route open.

At present the Trust involves over ten community wildlife projects, each independent and self-managing, and are all at different stages of development. The most advanced employ project managers, operate within planned budgets, and run active community programmes to improve the lives of their membership through investment in education and improved capacity in natural resource management. The least developed projects are aware of the others’ success yet have no cohesive approach to conservation, no budgets, and are not yet aware of the value of wildlife in helping to improve their livelihoods and reduce poverty.

The role of the Trust is to bring together these extremes, to encourage the independent development of each project yet to strive for the highest standards of conservation and governance through a process of peer review by all the members. The Trust accepts responsibility to help the member communities with technical support to improve the capacity of the membership to develop and manage their projects independently. This demonstration of the commercial sustainability of wildlife protection is a crucial element of the Trust’s work.

The Cycle of Life will try to visit as many Northern Rangelands Trust projects as possible. These will include Lewa, Namunyak, Il Ngwesi and possibly Sera.