Dan Stiles visits and evaluates the fortunes of a private wildlife conservation area in Kenya - Selenkay
In Swara Vol 28 No 2 I painted quite a bleak future for wildlife in Kenya and other parts of Africa. I blamed weak government conservation agencies for steep declines in wildlife numbers and habitats. And I pointed out how, in searching for natural resources to sustain their families, destitute people are eradicating wildlife and habitats on communal lands and in protected areas.
Just as people are the problem, however, so too are they the solution. Kenya unlike its East African neighbours, allows individuals and non-governmental organisations to own large chunks of wilderness land, whether in the shape of private ranches or communal group ranches, or - more recently - as wildlife conservancies belonging to non-profit trusts.
There are masses of wild animals and some stunning landscapes, o these properties.. And the people who manage them are potential the saviours of wild Africa for posterity.
My aim here is to present examples of different types of private conservation ventures that people in Kenya have embarked upon. On balance, the ventures show some hope for the future, but they also impart some hard lessons.
Selenkay "Around me the plains ran out to the far mountains melting into the night, and above all, like an invisible present, Kilimanjaro drew a faint gleam of snow under the first stars." Vivienne de Watteville penned this poetic description of Selenkay in one of my favourite books about Kenya, Speak to the Earth. She camped in the Selenkay area for two months in 1928, and recorded her adventures while photographing the abundant wildlife in what was then the Southern Game Reserve.
Ernest Hemingway hunted on these scrublands and plains, and he too described their enticing beauty in his writings. Today, this corner of Kenya - situated just a few kilometres north of the Amboseli National Park - forms the Selenkay (or Eselenkei) Group Ranch on which 10,000 Kisongo Maasai people live.
Vivieenne de Watteville would have been appalled had she been able 60 years later to revisit this magical haunt of her youth. By 1990, overgrazing had thinned out the natural vegetation, paving the way for an invasion of Ipomea and other unpalatable colonising plants. Bushmeat hunting had, meanwhile, either killed or chased away much of the wildlife.
Jake Grieves-Cook, head of Gamewatchers Safaris, remembers enjoying Selenkay's rich bush lands in the 1960s. "By the early 1990s," he told me, "the degradation of the place had become so disturbing that I decided to do something about it."
As one of the founders of Kenya's eco-tourism movement and a former chairman of the Ecotourism Society of Kenya, Jake decided to apply the low-impact approach of eco-tourism to Selenkay in a bid to rehabilitate the land. Another motivating factor was his unease at witnessing the steady impoverishment - due to government neglect - of the local Maasai community, some of whose members had become his friends.
Education and health facilities were few and far between. Roads were almost non-existent. Employment prospects were virtually nil. The human population of Kajiado District had grown to a size that pastoralism alone could not sustain and a desperate attempt to live from cattle, sheep and goats in the time-honoured way had hammered the land. The Maasai had taken out some of their frustration on wild animals. Rhinos and elephants were once just as numerous as cattle on Selenkay; today there are no rhinos and elephants are only now beginning to return to the area.
Jake formed Porini Ecotourism with the vision of setting up an authentic safari camp, far removed from the elaborate tented camps such as Governor's and Kichwa Tembo in the Mara that in reality were huge canvas-and-concrete lodges powered by noisy diesel generators. In May 1997, Porini entered into an agreement with the Selenkay Group Ranch that would turn 7,000 ha of the 75,000-ha ranch into a Conservation Area reserved for wildlife.
The area Jake and the Maasai chose was devoid of human settlement. Eco-tourism offered a way of generating income and other benefits for the community. The Maasai agreed to keep their cattle out of the Conservation Area in all but exceptional circumstances of controlled grazing around the fringes.
Porini has an exclusive lease on the Conservation Area: initially for 15 years but with the option to extend. It pays annual rent for exclusive rights to the Conservation Area, increasing at the rate of 10% a year. Porini pays entry fees to the Group Ranch for all visitors entering the Conservation Area, as well as bed night fees for visitors staying overnight.
Last year, the Group Ranch's take amounted to about US$ 20,000. In addition, 43 Maasai now depend for employment on Porini Camp, bringing in a further US$ 50,000.
"US$ 70,000 a year is a pretty good return for any community setting aside less than 10% of its land" said Jake. "And this year's income will be even greater." Lease payments aside, Porini has helped the community to repair its windmill pump, while also providing uniforms for the Community Game Scouts, donating funds towards developing the primary school and kindergarten, and deepening an existing watering hole for community livestock. The Selenkay committee has used the lease and bed night income to pay hospital bills and school fees for community members, to buy a water pump, and to send the Conservation Area's warden to a KWS training school.
A 2003 study on Selenkay by a Cambridge University student showed that most in the community back the venture and want it to continue, but they would like to see greater transparency from the committee on how funds are used. The Maasai women also expressed a desire to become more involved in the enterprise.
Until this year, Porini has been in the red for Jake, who has sunk considerable sums into the venture. The first year in which Porini achieved a break-even occupancy - of 400 visitors to the 12-bed camp - was 2004.
This year Jake is expecting Porini to hit the 700-visitor mark,. generating its first profit. As Jake told me, "The safari operator has to be motivated by factors other than straight commercial gain. It is more cost effective to lease a campsite f4rom the KWS inside a park than it is to lease a conservancy and incur the costs of running the conservancy in addition to those of running a camp."
Those other factors are a commitment to wildlife conservation, and the improvement of people's lives. Porini is targeting 1,000 visitors a year at which point Jake will be able to hire yet more people from the community.
Jake has already seen a regeneration of the vegetation, and the return of wild animals (lions, cheetahs, elephants) absent in the recent past. Selenkay has again assumed its traditional function as a wet season dispersal area from Amboseli. Wildebeest, zebras and giraffes are fairly common, as are Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles.
I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon walk with the Maasai in the dry riverbed where Daniel, a trained guide, explained aspects of Maasai culture, identified tracks in the sand, and pointed out other interesting features. A group of young moran - painted Maasai warriors - accompanied us and gave demonstrations of both their dancing and spear-throwing prowess. This walk is meant to teach 'eco-tourists' about Maasai culture, and to allow photo opportunities.
Each of the tents has solar powered lights, a toilet, a sink with decorated mirror, and a shower. I found the solar power to be one of the camp's most attractive features: lights available through the night, and no thumping generator! Water is heated in an efficient boiler using environmentally friendly briquettes that are only slightly more expensive than other fuels. No bush charcoal is used, and all the cooking is done on open 'jikos' (charcoal ovens) using the same fuel.
Porini has no bar, no swimming pool, nor any other permanent structure that might impact negatively on the environment. You need not worry, though for drinks are readily available around the campfire. All the camp's waste is separated into glass, plastics, metals, used oil, used batteries, paper waste and biodegradable waste. The segregated waste is then treated accordingly: biodegradable waste is composted in a closed, locked pit, while the remainder is squashed, packed and transported back to Nairobi for recycling, where possible.
Is Porini a success, then? Gazing out across the panorama at dusk, from the crest of Oloosinkiran, with the steel-blue Chyulu Hills, lying on the horizon above pristine bush to the east, and Kilimanjaro looming majestically to the south the answer - I think - has to be yes. Even Vivienne de Watteville, I fancy, would concur.
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This article is from the East African Wildlife Society.
