Our work within the community is ongoing, here are a couple of projects we have been involved in across the conservancies.
Grazing Plan
Naboisho Conservancy Grazing Plan
Grazing is a critical resource in a pastoral community conservancy and a unifying factor that determines whether the landowners, neighboring community, tourism investors, tourists and conservationists are in harmony or conflict.
Ultimately, grazing management determines whether a conservancy has diverse and abundant wildlife populations and provides a great wildlife experience to the conservancy’s visitors.
Cattle and grazing management take up a huge amount of management time and resources and divert it away from other areas such as wildlife and habitat management. As cattle are so central to the Maasai way of life it is important that we incorporate them where we can. The ability to graze the grass with control on the Landowners side as well as management. Night grazing and illegal grazing has reduced. Red oat grass has increased with the other grasses that cows don't eat decreasing.
Aitong Water Project
Aitong Spring community access to safe water
Aitong WaterAitong Spring is the source of water for Aitong centre. The community collects its water from the spring either individually or by purchasing from water vendors who carry it on donkey carts. The tourist camps also send in their trucks to ferry water to the camps. The youth equally conduct Car wash services on the lower part using the same spring water. While during the dry season cattle from the neighboring area utilize the water. At night wildlife such as Elephants can access the water especially during the dry season.
Initially the villagers had to cope with a muddy hole with steep slippery banks, where filling of containers is extremely difficult. You can imagine the difficulties of lifting, and the risk of slipping with a 20 kg container of water out of such a location. With the assistance from one of the camps the spring was improved. An effort was made to prevent the water that flows out returning to contaminate the source. The villagers could then walk down water trough, place their container under the discharge pipe and then walk out with their load in safety.
The overall goal for the Aitong spring is to improve the Aitong community access to safe water from Aitong spring. A core team was set up to give focus to the spring and they came up with a plan of action.
Boma Fortification
We work together with the Anne Kent Taylor Fund and Eden Wildlife Trust on constructing and fortifying local homesteads with wire mesh rolls. The aim of the project is to reduce Wildlife Livestock conflict within community settlement areas, specifically nighttime incursions by hyena, lion and leopard.. So far we have provided 2'000 wire mesh rolls to the local Maasai Community, in the process of fortyfying 100s of homesteads.