Lion conservation projects in Kenya

country:	Kenya
departures:	2009: 7 Dec
price:	From £1695 - £1795 (13 days) excluding flights
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

Wildlife conservation here

Kenya holidays & safaris here

the amazing things you'll be doing

The 600-square-kilometer Taita/Rukinga Wildlife Conservancy is considered by many to offer the finest wilderness experience available in Kenya. Here you can see civets, aardwolves, and other species missed on most safaris. However, lions are difficult to locate here, and you'll search for them from vehicles in evening, late night, and early morning drives, taking a mid-day siesta like most of the local wildlife. When you find lions, you'll keep track of individuals and scan for prey or other lions. You'll also help photograph lion whisker patterns (for identification) and videotape and record behavior. While on patrol, you'll monitor the distribution and abundance of more than 100 species of other wildlife to help secure government protection for the Taita/Rukinga Wildlife Conservancy's unspoiled savannah woodland.

You'll stay at Campi ya Neka, a cluster of tents in the heart of the wilderness, from which you can enjoy unbroken views of the wild African bush stretching to the horizon. Many animals pass the camp on their way to a nearby waterhole, including elephants, buffalo, and impala. The tents feature two beds, electric lights, and fans, with communal flush toilets and showers nearby.

a day in a life of a volunteer

Below are tentative schedules for the first and second weeks of the expedition. Your flexibility in regards to changing schedules is appreciated.

First Week: Evening and Night Drives
9:00 am: Breakfast in camp
10:00 am: Orientation, briefing, activity (1-2 hours)
1:00 pm: Lunch in camp
2:00 pm: Rest, read, etc.
4:00 pm: Survey and monitoring drive – gathering vital lion data
8:30 pm: Dinner in camp
10:00 pm: Resume drive
2:00 am: Return to beautiful walk-in safari tents to sleep

Second Week (Early Morning and Evening Drives)
2:30 am: Awake
2:45 am: Snack (coffee, tea, bread)
3:00 am: Survey and monitoring drive – gathering vital lion data
8:00 am: Breakfast in camp
8:30 am: Rest, read, etc.
1:00 pm: Lunch in camp
2:00 pm: Rest, read, etc.
4:00 pm: Survey and monitoring drive – gathering vital lion data
8:30 pm: Dinner in camp
9:30 pm: Return to beautiful walk-in safari tents to sleep

volunteer travel - what's it all about?

Are you looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world.
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.

how this holiday makes a difference

The project is yielding the first detailed and quantified information on annual cycles, space-use and diets of lions in this region. This is leading to design and implementation of effective conservation policies. Project information is identifying circumstances and husbandry practices that protect cattle from lions, and those that place cattle at gravest risk. This is of benefit to both humans and lions as it reduces the threat to lions from cattle owners. The project is also directly responsible for conserving Taita Ranch in a natural state on an ongoing basis.

There is an environmental policy for this expedition and sustainable practices are implemented wherever possible. These include addressing issues of resources, waste, water, energy, biodiversity, together with adhering to ‘leave no trace’ principles. This project employs local people and supports the local economy.

We are a not-for-profit international environmental organisation committed to conserving the diversity of life on earth and the world’s natural resources in order to meet the needs of current and future generations. On any one of our many projects around the world you are certainly not a tourist. You will be working as a field assistant helping world renowned scientists on real environmental projects, and learning about conservation issues. We give people the knowledge and the motivation to do something positive towards helping the environment, regardless of experience and background.

The data that you will help to collect will be used to inform conservation decision makers around the world. Since 1971 our research has led to:

the discovery of 2000 new species

the creation of new national parks, reserves and protected areas

the collection of crucial data leading to better-informed conservation decisions

over 80,000 volunteers contributing over 10 million hours of fieldwork

We are aware that many people travel to their project by air and recognise the impact of this on the environment. In an effort to minimise this, we have teamed up with an organisation that offsets emissions from your flights by funding renewable energy, energy efficient and forest restoration projects around the world.

As an environmental organisation we recognise that our day-to-day operations have an impact on the local, regional and global environment. We have an environmental policy which outlines our commitment to continuous improvements in our environmental performance. We have developed an Environmental Management System based on the guidelines and standards set out in ISO14001 and the Global Reporting Initiative, in order to measure our performance against agreed targets to deliver our environmental policy. These include: paper usage, recycling, responsible travel, carbon offsetting, green energy providers and many more environmental and social principles that form a continuous thread throughout our whole operations.

Main image courtesy of Atul Bhatt.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.