In 1996, the
African Wildlife Foundation, based in Washington, DC, presented
Ker & Downey with its prestigious Leadership Award,
‘in recognition of a half century of safaris through
which they shared, with clients from around the world, a
love and appreciation for the majesty of wildlife and wild
places of East Africa. In so doing, Ker & Downey helped
lay the foundation for international support to conservation.’
Today, we remain very aware of the effect
tourism has on the environment. We have a responsibility
to the places and the people who live there. Our eco-friendly
mobile camps are the least obtrusive way of enjoying
the wilderness. Set up only for the few days they are required,
they disappear, leaving nature to take its course.
A desire to support local communities while
protecting the wildlife that lives outside the national
parks and reserves has led us to lease land from local communities,
such as the Masai in Amboseli, where we can enjoy the freedom
of an untamed wilderness while supporting the local people.
We have established trust funds to protect the wildlife
in these areas, and also to support local initiatives such
as schools, dispensaries and cattle dips.
Our guides and guests have also played an
active role within the National Parks and Game Reserves.
We have donated money and vehicles to the Kenya Wildlife
Services and local county councils, helping them to build
roads, dams and boreholes.
We are working with the following organizations to help
preserve and protect Kenya’s wildlife and wild places
for the benefit of future generations.
The Kitirua Wildlife Conservancy
The Kitirua Wildlife Conservancy is an area of 28,000 acres
adjoining Amboseli National Park in Southern Kenya. The
Conservancy is a partnership between Ker and Downey Safaris,
in the Olgulului Ololarashi Group Ranch and Kimbla Mantana
Safaris. The conservancy is part of an effort to ensure
that the livelihoods of the people who live on the group
ranch are improved by protecting the flora and fauna in
the area. Through generous donations from our guests we
have been able to build boreholes, pay salaries for game
scouts, provide books and other learning material to Esiteti
Primary School, fence the campsites to prevent damage to
trees by elephants and create bursaries for students at
the local schools to attend further education. Future projects
include the building of a new school and clinic, the creation
of scolarships for higher education as well as the establishment
of a tree nursery.
African Wildlife
Foundation
Founded in 1961, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is
focused solely on conservation on the African continent.
Since its inception AWF has played a major role in ensuring
that some of the continents most endangered species survive
and prosper. AWF recognizes the need to develop conservation
initiatives that improve the livelihoods of local people
who live with wildlife.
African
Environmental Film Foundation
“Environmental Education Through Film” –
The African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF) produces
educational films about environmental issues, specifically
made for local people and narrated in their own languages.
The films aim to illustrate the sustainable financial benefits
that people can get from wildlife and wild habitats. AEFF’s
films have reached an audience of over 3 million people
in East Africa, the films are shown to school children,
youth and community groups and women’s groups, as
well as to community leaders and other people in authority.
AEFF has a permanent, fully professional film team headed
by Simon Trevor, an international award winning filmmaker.
Amara Conservation
Amara is a small organisation, which is dedicated to showing
environmental education films (in particular those produced
by AEFF) to schools and community groups all over Kenya.
Amara has a fully mobile film unit, which can show films
in almost any location, at any time of the day or night.
The film unit runs off a generator so it is independent
of mains electricity supply. The target audiences are given
simple questionnaires to fill out after watching the film,
and the results of these are then used to determine local
attitudes and perceptions towards wildlife, conservation
and the environment. Repeat visits, and showings of different
films; help to gauge success in changing peoples’
perceptions of the environment and the wildlife therein.
Amara has been instrumental in making many, many people
more aware of the importance of protecting their environment
and wildlife.
Lake
Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru is a wetland of major international importance,
with an abundance of birdlife and large mammals. The varied
habitats of woodland, bush, grassland and cliffs around
the lake support a large and diverse population of animals
including the rare Rothschild’s Giraffe, Black and
White Rhinoceroses, lions and leopards. Lake Nakuru is an
alkaline lake and, as such, it cannot be used by the wildlife
as a source of drinking water. The wildlife in the Park
has to rely instead on three small rivers, which flow into
the lake from the surrounding farmland. These rivers are
becoming increasingly seasonal and unreliable as sources
of fresh water. A Ker and Downey guest has recently funded
the rehabilitation of a number of waterholes in the Park,
but further work is needed before the water supply for the
wildlife can be more reliable.
Amboseli
Elephant Research Project
The elephants of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park are
perhaps the most celebrated group of wild elephants in the
world. These fascinating animals are the subjects of the
longest running study of elephants in the wild – the
Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP). Since 1972, Cynthia
Moss has identified and recorded more than 1,700 elephants
by name, number or code. The project regularly collects,
analyses, and disseminates data on the 1,100 elephants presently
living in and around the Park. The AERP data set has become
an invaluable source of baseline information for elephant
research continent-wide.
The Amboseli Tsavo Game Scouts Association
The Amboseli – Tsavo Game Scouts Association is an
umbrella body (registered in April 2003) that coordinates
all the community game scout activities in the Amboseli
and West Tsavo ecosystem. Community game scouts are natural
resource managers based at the village level, who are involved
in the management of wildlife in the dispersal areas outside
gazetted protected zones. They play a crucial role in protecting
wildlife in areas where the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)
is unable to have a presence. The broad objective of the
association is to unite the game scouts from different parts
of the ecosystem, in order to enhance wildlife conservation
and management in the dispersal areas (the Group Ranches),
whilst improving the socio-economic standards of its members.
Interested in Pre-history? Include visits
to famous fossil and archaeological sites such as Koobi
Fora in Sibiloi National
Park in your safari itinerary. Learn more about the
Koobi Fora Research Project.
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