Community Conservation Projects

Mpala Wildlife Foundation has supported several conservation projects in neighbouring group ranches to the north east of Mpala. The Naibunga conservancy is one such initiative. This conservancy is the coming together of nine community group ranches. The community has set aside 40,000 of 250,000 acres purely for conservation purposes. This conservancy is established with an existing board of trustees and will soon employ a manager to oversee its activities. In the long term the conservancy aims to help alleviate poverty through wildlife conservation and income generating projects.

The Ol Goboli community conservation project, which belongs to Il Motiok women's group ranch, has already made progress in this direction by leasing 1000 acres to Rift Valley Adventures - a founding partner that has worked with the conservancy for the past three years. The project is being funded by the European Union's Biodiversity Conservation project and is managed by officers of the Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF). The project has started hosting student groups for adventure travel and it received its first visitors in November 2005. Following tilling of the soil by Mpala machinery, there has been a dramatic regeneration of ground cover and a subsequent return of wildlife - Elephants, Grants gazelle, Giraffe and Grevy's Zebra all being common.