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The camp represents an intriguing new development in conservation tourism in Kenya and is the first community-owned ecolodge in the Masai Mara. To date, only 20 percent of guides in the Masai Mara are local Masai and if this incredible wildlife reserve is to survive the pressures of a growing human population and the corresponding desire for more agricultural and grazing land, it is essential that the local community benefit from ecotourism and see wildlife as a valuable resource which must be protected.
The Koiyaki Wilderness Camp was set up especially to provide a sustainable source of revenue for the nearby Koiyaki Guiding School, which was established in 2005 in order to train local Masai men and women to become ecotourism guides and to thereby become involved in and to benefit from ecotourism in the region.
As the first of its kind in Kenya, and it is hoped, the model of a high quality tourism camp staffed and managed by local hosts / guides providing revenue for a guide training facility, it will provide a blueprint for community-based conservation and ecotourism in other regions of Africa. In addition to funding the Koiyaki Guiding School, a significant proportion of the safari price goes towards supporting community-based conservation in the wider 20,000 hectare Koiyaki conservancy which is an integral part of the Masai Mara.
In travelling to the Masai Mara with us, you are helping to support one of the earth's great wildlife and wilderness areas which relies upon responsible ecotourism for its continued survival.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
