As part of the launch for the competition we are currently running with Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, one of our directors Robert wrote an article for the publication. “Nature in the balance” discusses the conflict between man and wildlife and tells of an innovative way in which private conservation projects are successfully making them live in harmony.
The competition runs until the end of November. To enter, either visit our competition page or come and see us at the Luxury Travel Show in London between the 5th-8th November. We’d love to see you and you can enter there as well. For free tickets, visit our Luxury Travel Show page.
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Nature in the balance by Robert Ferguson
Africa’s national parks and reserves are vital for the survival of numerous species. The remorseless destruction of their habitats has made these
protected areas a last bastion. As the human population grows, more land is being taken over for cultivation and grazing, closing off migration corridors and dispersal areas, and isolating these parks and reserves. Wildlife increasingly finds its natural habitats and food sources destroyed. Conflict between human and beast inevitably ensues, livestock is predated upon and crops are damaged. Privatisation of much of the communal land that borders the national parks and reserves has only compounded the issue.
Now, a scheme in Kenya is aiming to implement profitable community conservation plans and prove that wildlife can flourish alongside people. The premise is simple – convince the local population that conservation will generate them more income than traditional farming would.
In the Mara North Conservancy (MNC) – 26,000 hectares of prime wilderness situated immediately to the northeast of the Maasai Mara National Reserve – the scheme has been embraced by the local Maasai landowners. In return for a guaranteed monthly rent, concessions have been offered to low-impact safari camps.
The MNC is one of the world’s largest community and private-sector-owned conservancies and this is the first time that many Maasai have been able to receive a direct income from wildlife. In addition, vocational training is sponsored by the conservancy and philanthropic travellers.
For example, following a visit to the conservancy, the OBEL project has provided US$1 million over three years, primarily for the provision of education. It’s building new classrooms, as well as providing IT training and a range of other initiatives.
The camps also provide a source of employment to members of the local communities who don’t own land. The Karen Blixen Tented Camp offers opportunities to train in the hospitality sector through its Cookery and Forestry Schools. Other camps provide health clinics and a midwife service, and the Aitong Water Project is improving accessibility to safe drinking water.
Grazing is the biggest source of potential conflict, but this is being managed effectively. Each community is allowed to graze a small portion of the land that it traditionally grazed, herds are bunched, tourists are encouraged to visit and should a herder be found grazing in the wrong area, he’s fined. Boundaries are set in consultation with the community and the rotation managed to ensure that grass banks are set aside, open zones aren’t grazed too intensively and grazed areas are allowed plenty of time to recover.
Swathes of land remain free of Maasai herds and are used by the camps to provide game drives. Crucially, the camps promote low-density tourism, with one camp visitor per 350 acres (141 hectares). This ensures an exclusive safari experience and minimal impact to the landscape and its wildlife.
Encouraging the game to live in proximity with the Maasai does lead to some conflict. Big cats can kill livestock, but a scheme has been implemented to offer compensation to affected Maasai.
Advice is also given on how to keep the livestock secure at night, when the herds of cattle, sheep and goats are fenced in bomas. Traditionally, these enclosures were made of wood and acacia thorn bushes, but the Boma Fortification Scheme has provided some 2,000 wire-mesh rolls to create effective mobile barriers.
A win for the landowners is also a win for wildlife. An estimated 40,000 wildebeest migrate through these conservancies, the remnants of the once larger Loita Wildebeest Migration, in addition to the two million animals that come up from the Serengeti in June and July each year. Between 3,000 and 4,000 elephants in the Mara use these areas heavily and the conservancies offer them protection, open up parts of their migration corridors and facilitate research on their numbers, movements and dispersal.
The MNC is one of four conservancies managed by Seiya, a Nairobi-based family business that began by managing the ‘Mara Triangle’, a third of the main reserve, 14 years ago. It now also manages the Naboisho, Mara North and Ol Choro conservancies. Justin Heath oversees the day-today management of the three conservancies outside the reserve, including the MNC. ‘My dad has run the Mara Triangle for 12–13 years; I’ve been involved for four years,’ he says. ‘After doing my degree at University of Edinburgh, I went to work in the USA and South America, but I wanted to come home after my first daughter was born.’
Justin exemplifies the new generation of conservationists who understand that you have to work with the communities, rather than keeping the land solely for wildlife. ‘The conservancies provide hope for one of the world’s great ecosystems,’ he says. ‘In the past seven years, 80,000 hectares have been privately protected outside the reserve, with more than 2,000 landowners choosing to use their land for conservation. These conservancies are a great buffer to the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the northern Serengeti.’
Another four conservancies under private management are being established. Kenya’s new Wildlife Bill recognises conservation as a form of land use, and the Maasai Mara conservancies have joined to form an association that can effectively lobby government; 21 of their 23 recommendations were incorporated into the new bill.
If managed correctly, private conservation schemes will improve the lives of the local people, and give wildlife the chance to thrive in areas in which it would previously have been hunted or driven away from. Ultimately, this is a chance to preserve the iconic Maasai Mara National Reserve, home to the Great Migration.