Mt Kenya charity climb

A minimum of £1,000 per person will be donated to the Laikipia Wildlife Forum to assist its community and education programmes. After the climb you will spend time visiting and learning about LWF's Community Conservation Programmes - you will be taken out on the Environmental Education Programme Bus, along with students from local schools, to visit nearby Wildlife Conservancies.

Examples of the LWF’s community and education programmes
The Environmental Education Programme Bus
The LWF hopes that by encouraging involvement through environmental education, the next generation of responsible, committed Kenyans will work for the sustained conservation of the Laikipia ecosystem. The vast majority of Kenyan children have never seen wildlife in their natural environment despite living in a country with rich wildlife resources and an economy dependent on wildlife tourism.

Initiatives such as demonstrations of tree-seedling planting, waste reuse and recycling, renewable energy initiatives and water conservation allows pupils to see how theory is put into practice, thus improving their environment and livelihoods whilst having a fun day out!

The Bus enables:
- school children to visit conservation areas and projects
- school children to interact with other wildlife clubs and conservation groups, attend public debates / lectures in other schools, and participate in events such as World Environment Day and an annual essay writing competition
- the EEO to visit remote schools using education tools, such as magnetic panels that fix to the side of the Bus and audiovisual materials

The Community Conservation Programme
Land use: Bio-enterprises such as aloe production and commercialisation in dry areas, development of sites for bio-fuel and / or medical and herbal products as an alternatives to the traditional and unsustainable cattle-keeping practices. Range-land rehabilitation thought holistic grazing management leading to improved soil quality and productivity for cattle keeping.

Forest use: Community forest management and extensive tree planting for the commercial market, including: sustainable fuel, timber, bio-fuels and medicinal products. Community tree planting and establishment of tree nurseries on farms for carbon trading.

Water use: Water resource management leading to fairer distribution of water and less wasted water
Identifying water catchment areas to improve rainwater collection.

Community wildlife enterprises: Yaaku cultural museum for conserving this indigenous people’s history and generating income from tourism. Developing eco-tourism projects such as tourist lodges, beadwork and cultural activities some of which are solely managed by women.

Human-wildlife conflict mitigation: Creating chilli fences to keep elephants from destroying crops. Constructing predator-proof bomas (livestock pens) and strategic fencing.

Local ground agents
Our local ground agents operate on designated routes to minimise impact on the fragile ecosystem. All food is prepared from fresh local produce, with all packaging and litter taken off the mountain and recycled. They do not allow fires above 3000m on the mountain and they try to use low carbon fuels for cooking. The porters and guides benefit from their Wilderness First Aid, Risk Management in the Outdoors and Minimum Impact Walking and Camping training courses and a proportion on the clients cost is donated to local Trusts that work in endemic tree planting initiatives on Mt. Kenya and Porters and Guides clubs to help with their training.

Lodge
After the climb you will stay in the beautiful Ol Gaboli Lodge. Ol Gaboli, owned by the Il Motiok women’s group and run in partnership with Rift Valley Adventures, is one of several ranch projects financed by the EU and Laikipia Wildlife Forum’s Community Conservation Programme. Your visits generate funds that can send children to the new primary school, buy livestock or help women set up small businesses including making beaded jewellery. The lodge also plays a vital role in conservation. Il Motiok’s Maasai community can now see direct financial benefit from preserving wildlife. Once seen purely as food or a threat to humans and grazing cattle, lions, gazelles and elephants now bring in tourists and the Naibunga Conservancy has been established with surrounding ranches. 

About us
We are a UK-registered charity that raises funds to: protect rhino populations and increase numbers in the wild; and to educate and find positive opportunities for impoverished communities living in areas of high biodiversity. With funds raised via our fundraising we are currently supporting 12 field projects across Asia and Africa (in Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and India); and to raising public awareness of the need for rhino conservation.

The money raised pays for:
- Anti-poaching and monitoring patrols, which detect and deter poachers and gather information about rhino ranges and numbers
- Translocations i.e. rhinos from established populations are reintroduced to former habitats
- Research into the threats to rhino survival and alternatives to the use of rhino horn - Veterinary work, such as the implanting of transmitters into horns, or removal of snares
- Environmental education programmes that teach children and adults about the importance of preserving natural resources and address human-wildlife conflict issues
- Community conservation programmes that develop sustainable methods by which local communities can creatively manage natural resources

And it's not just about the rhino either: rhinos share their home with numerous other wildlife species that benefit from environmental protection too, and local communities find opportunities for poverty reduction through wildlife tourism or better livestock management.

Why rhinos are critically endangered (ie. facing an extreme high risk of extinction): The fundamental problem for the rhino is its horn, which is made of keratin, a substance found in human hair and nails. Rhino horn is used extensively in Traditional Chinese Medicine and to make ornamental dagger handles in the Yemen. In addition, rhino habitat is being lost as a result of the clearance of land for rapidly increasing human settlement and for agricultural production and / or as a result of logging, both authorised and illegal. Political conflict and, more recently, climate change have added further pressure on the species and the habitat they share with numerous other flora and fauna.