By Justin Francis, responsibletravel.com 
Removed from their land in 1974 to create the famous Masai Mara National Game Reserve the Maasai community are fighting back with innovative tourism ventures developed in partnership with responsible tourism businesses. When our Maasai guide Amos blows against the edge of his spear to mimic bird song to call them closer the true value of having a Maasai guide to share their intimate knowledge of the bush becomes apparent.
We are walking on Maasai land adjacent to the Masai Mara National Game Reserve in Kenya. The Reserve is not fenced and the land surrounding it is full of game, the ancestral home to the Maasai community, and a vital area for conservation.
Amos is a natural showman. He and fellow guide William have taught us elementary tracking skills, when I mistake Thompson Gazelles dung for that of a Zebra he shares the widest and brightest smile in Africa with us. Later we are shown a Cordia bush and William explains how the leaves are boiled in water and used as a medicine for pregnant women and in Maasai circumcism ceremonies.
Later that day we are taken to the Maasai Boma, or village, to meet the women and children. The children perform a dance to welcome us and we are shown inside a low hut built from sticks and cow dung 'cement' to meet a young mother of two. Amos translates as she explains a little about her daily life and how young calves sleep inside the hut with her and the children to ensure the cows continue to produce the milk which the Masai drink mixed with cows blood.
Before leaving we are given the opportunity to buy beautiful beaded bracelets and crafts made by the Maasai women. Money from this, and a pre-agreed fee for the tour, are a vital source of supplementary income for the village.
The Masai Mara National Reserve has been a very mixed blessing for the Maasai. Many were evicted from their lands to create it in 1974. They are restricted from using it for grazing, water or firewood. Although they are supposed to receive a small share of revenues from tourist gate entry fees very little, if any money trickles down to those who need it most - the Maasai families whose crops and lives are taken by Elephants and other mega-fauna leaving the Reserve to cross their land.
However, the tide is beginning to turn. The Maasai have been granted legal rights to their land, which is jointly managed by Group Ranches. Having watched wealthy tourists enter the Reserve for decades many have decided that they too would like a piece of the tourism action.
Recognising that they lack the skills, international networks and marketing clout to run tourism businesses on their own they have chosen to partner with forward thinking and responsible tourism businesses.
Base Camp on the banks of the Talek River just outside the Reserve is one such business. Their mission is 'to provide a meeting place where tourists can meet people, traditions and nature in an open and intimate atmosphere. Our profound eco-tourism effort presents a different and genuine feeling, which engages the visitor intellectually and emotionally'.
In contrast to many of the super luxury Mara lodges with white-gloved waiters Base Camp is a simple, relaxed and informal group of 15 spacious tents mounted on fixed structures with thatched roofs where you might just as easily end up chatting with the Maasai gardener for the afternoon as sipping gin and tonic (although this too is possible).
Dream Camp employs Amos and William, and 25 other Maasai. They have a 42-year lease with the Ole Taek Group Ranch for use of the land. In addition, they pay the Maasai a bed night levy of £3 for every overnight guest, and additional fees for village tours and for use of their land for walking safaris.
Beyond this they, and a UK Charity Friends of Conservation (who also provide safari drivers with guidelines on minimising environmental/wildlife impacts), have built a wood camp to help the Maasai minimise a severe deforestation problem by planting quick growing indigenous trees for sustainable use as firewood, and for reforestation. In time, they hope to support the Maasai women in growing fruit and vegetables here, and to subsequently buy this produce from them for the Camp.
As befitting a business with Swedish/Norwegian origins Base Camp takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. They have bio toilets, recycle waste water to water the trees in the camp, and use solar power to meet all their heating and lighting requirements. Incredibly they will shortly be seeking ISO 14001 accreditation.
Base Camp, and their partnership with the Maasai, represents an unusual but increasing trend in Kenyan tourism. For tourists it presents a very different type of experience to surrounding a Cheetah in the Masai Mara Reserve with 50 safari vehicles.
Tina Frisk, Base Camp Manager, talks about tourists as being 'TV damaged' by wildlife documentaries and about finding ways of allowing tourists to 'be more present' in Africa's wildlife and cultures. For the Maasai tourism presents a way to supplement their income and in some way help to mitigate against the daily perils of living with large and dangerous animals.
Tourism is no panacea to the conservation problems resulting from park/people conflicts. The increasing Maasai population; Maasai politics; the fact that they could probably make more money from agriculture than tourism and the subdivision of their land into smaller and smaller plots present serious conservation issues.
However, there is one benefit to the Maasai retaining their traditional pastoral lifestyles and being involved in tourism (rather than turning to agriculture) that remains difficult to quantify. The Maasai saying 'mepal oloitiko isirat', translated as 'a zebra cannot despise his stripes' brings to life the importance to the Maasai of keeping their traditions alive.
