Mara East: A New Conservation Area
August, 2024 – Nawiri Group, through Asilia Giving, are investing in the creation of new conservation area in the Greater Mara ecosystem. The Mara East communities have agreed a long-term plan to ensure the ecosystem remains intact, wildlife corridors remain open and the Forest of the Lost Child remains sacred.
In 2010 Asilia were founding partners in the conception of a new innovative partnership model between Maasai landowners and tour operators, leading to the creation of the Mara Naboisho Conservancy, which today protects over 20,000 hectares in the Maasai Mara ecosystem whilst generating income and creating jobs for the local population. Naboisho now acts as a role model for other conservancies in Kenya.
Mara East, neighbouring the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR), it is an integral part of what is known as the Southern Rangelands of Kenya, famous for its high mammal biodiversity and migrations of wildlife. Currently, this area of land is unprotected and faces rapid and unpredictable change. Unplanned development, sub-division of land leading to small fenced plots, intensive grazing and slash-and-plant cultivation are threatening the health of the current landscape, as well as driving communities into cycles of poverty as they try and live on increasingly unproductive areas of land.
The proposed new conservation area aims to deliver a well planned and managed multi-use landscape, where communities and wildlife co-exist for the long-term benefit of human residents and biodiversity.
The first phase of the project is being led by Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA), in close collaboration with Basecamp Explorer Foundation, Kenya (BCEF). The first steps are for Mara East to determine its own governance mechanisms for the region and become a sister organisation or member of MMWCA, mirroring the present model across existing Mara Conservancies, as they look to secure the long-term planning and future prosperity of the Sand River Corridor, the Forest of the Lost Child and surroundings.