Mpus Kutuk Community Conservancy

Background
The Kipsing community made a request to the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) from the Kipsing community to help establish a community-based conservation initiative in their region. Tusk secured funding from the BBC Wildlife Fund to make this request a reality.

The Kipsing area, now incorporating Mpus Kutuk Conservancy an area of 52,500 ha, is a crucial corridor for wildlife moving between Samburu and Laikipia districts. It was identified as the area requiring the most urgent conservation intervention during a landscape planning workshop in 2006, which included all conservation organisations working in the region. The benefits to conservation of having this area under integrated wildlife and livestock management by the local community is likely to be great in future. Game-meat and ivory poaching is a serious threat in this area and wildlife populations have been decimated in the past. With the development of Mpus Kutuk Conservancy and employment of community security scouts it is anticipated that poaching can relatively quickly be brought under control.

Project Development
The grant from the BBC Wildlife Fund to Tusk Trust has allowed Mpus Kutuk to achieve the following:

• The Mpus Kutuk Community Conservancy has been established, registered and a Board of Trustees drawn from the community has been trained. Five Board meetings have been held so far this year these have focused on raising community awareness on the conservancy development in different parts of Kipsing and neighbouring areas. A conservancy manager - Patrick Lenawasae - has been recruited to manage the scouts and other staff; act as liaison with constituent communities and the Board of Mpus Kutuk Community Conservancy; and oversee the day to day management of the conservancy
• A grazing sub-committee to the Board has been established and trained to begin the integration of grazing and livestock management across the Kipsing area and with its neighbours, principally Lekurruki and West Gate conservancies. Prior to this training, there were constant incursions by Kipsing livestock into the Lekurruki conservation area, however since April there have been no further incursions.
• Six community scouts and radio operators have been recruited, equipped and trained for field deployment, anti-poaching and wildlife monitoring operations as an initial start to improve wildlife conservation and to curb poaching threats to wildlife in Kipsing. Communication through the radio network is vital to improving security for both people and wildlife in this region.

In 2009 Mpus Kutuk received a follow on grant from the BBC Wildlife Fund to increase the number of scouts employed and expand the teams mandate; develop a core conservation area for wildlife, and facilitate the development of enterprise partnerships with private sector tourism to ensure direct equitable returns to the community. In addition part of the grant was allocated for purchase of cattle from the community as part of the greater Ol Pejeta Conservancy livestock programme. For full details visit www.olpejetaconservancy.org

Mpus Kutuk is the newest edition to the Northern Rangelands Trust conservancies but an important one as it forms the missing piece in the jigsaw of conservancies that stretch from the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy north to the far end of the Mathews Range.

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