Lekurruki Conservation Trust

Background
The Lekurruki Conservation Trust is a community led conservation initiative that falls under the umbrella of the Northern Rangelands Trust and is situated on the 60,000 acre Lekurruki Group Ranch. This is unique and beautiful land that is bordered by the indigenous Cedar forest of the Mukogodo to the west and the riverine land of the Ngare Ndare River to the east.

The Laikipiak Maasai have been guardians of the Mukogodo Forest for a hundred years or more and were one of the more successful tribes of hunter/gatherers; foraging and bee keeping in the forest, and tending goats in the low country on the banks of the Ngare Ndare River. Over time they have changed their way of life and now trade in cattle with neighbouring tribes and have consequently adopted a more sedentary way of life, building houses and clearing land for grazing.

This semi-nomadic lifestyle is becoming more and more difficult to sustain, with an increased human population, the need for access to schooling and other services, plus the inflated economic aspirations of the people. The capacity of livestock and bee keeping to sustain the Laikipiak Maasai has been reduced and as a result alternative forms of income had to be found, which preferably were not dependent on the forest.

Areas, like Lekurruki are vanishing at an astounding pace in Kenya, because people are harnessing the land for commercial use in ways which cannot be sustained – extensive logging, charcoal burning, arable farming, horticulture etc. This destruction of habitat alters people’s cultural beliefs since there are few profitable financial ventures that can preserve the traditional ways of life and their sense of identity.

Lekurruki Conservation Trust
The project, which was established eight years ago, follows the same principles as the rest of the NRT projects. The aim of the Lekurruki community now is to embrace a new form of land use, where income is generated from the wildlife in the area, thereby conserving their community land for future generations and without harming the fragile habitats. To this end they have established a core conservation area of 6,874ha where only restricted grazing of livestock is allowed to happen at the end of the dry season, otherwise this area is reserved solely for wildlife.

To generate income, Tassia, an eco-lodge has been built in this core conservation area. This is owned by the local community and managed by a separate company that pays bed night and conservation fees to the Trust for every visitor to the lodge. The lodge employs 23 members of the community. Profits from the lodge are split 40/60% with the former being reinvested into the operating costs of the conservancy and 60% being used to fund community development projects such as improvements of schools and provision of student bursaries.

Prior to the establishment of tourism, the local community were totally dependent on a pastoralist livelihood, in a historically insecure area where cattle rustling and wildlife poaching were both frequent. Since the development of the community conservation project, security has been greatly enhanced for both wildlife and people. The community of 399 households (approximately 3,000 individuals) has maintained a traditional pastoralist lifestyle whilst also benefiting from tourism income from the lodge.

Since 1996, when there was a great deal of insecurity in Lekurruki due to constant invasion by neighbouring pastoralist communities and theft of livestock, the majority of the community moved off their land and are now settled illegally in the Mukogodo forest reserve, approximately nine km from the Group Ranch. By working in conjunction with the Lekurruki and Kipsing communities NRT and Tusk have been able to forge an alliance where there was once conflict. The Samburu of Kipsing frequently staged ‘walk-on’s’ and cattle incursions onto Lekurruki, which is Maasai territory. However with the inception of the conservation and tourism project in 2000, including recruitment of trained and equipped security scouts and a shared radio network, security on both group ranches has improved hugely and the conflict issues have been largely resolved. As a result, the community of Lekurruki has moved back onto their land.

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