User:Wild Comms

The Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) is a community-led organisation that aims to develop resilient community conservancies in northern Kenya. These conservancies support to marginalised communities to secure peace, improve their livelihoods and conserve natural resources. Since its inception in 2004, NRT has raised funds for conservancies, provided locally elected conservancy boards with advice on how to manage their affairs, and supported a wide range of training. NRT also helps broker agreements between conservancies and investors, the majority of which are tourism companies. The Trust also monitors performance, providing donors with a degree of oversight and quality assurance. The impacts that NRT has had have made it a model for community conservation, and helped shape government regulation on community conservancies in Kenya .

The NRT Headquarters are housed in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, located north of Mount Kenya, but within the Mount Kenya World Heritage Site.

Conservancies

NRT supports 26 community conservancies (as of the beginning of 2014) covering over 25,000 km2 of northern Kenya’s rangelands. These conservancies are: Awer, Biliqo-Bulesa, Hanashak-Nyogoro, Il Ngwesi, Ishaqbini Hirola, Jaldesa, Kalama, Lekurruki, Leparua, Lower Tana Delta, Ltungai, Meibae, Melako, Mpus Kutuk, Naibunga, Nakuprat-Gotu, Namunyak, Nasulu, Ndera, Ngare Ndare Forest, Pate Marine, Ruko, Sera, Songa, Shurra and West Gate .

Communities

Around 260,000 people from 14 ethnicities live in NRT member conservancies. The Bajun, Boni, Borana, Giriama, Maasai, Njemps, Ntorobo, Orma, Pokomo, Pokot, Rendille, Samburu,Somali and Turkana all have livelihoods largely based in nomadic pastoralism. Each have a rich and varied culture which NRT incorporates into their approach to community conservation, alongside modern research to rehabilitate the rangelands and sustain natural resources .

Conflict then arises between tribes over gazing and water. In the past, this has lead to numerous fatalities as well as cattle raiding, armed banditry as well as poaching.Thus, one of NRT’s primary focuses is achieving peace between the communities

With the land being as harsh as it is, sustaining a pastoralist life can be difficult which drove some people into cattle stealing or to cities in search of jobs. NRT provides several employment opportunities as rangers, in administration, in the tourist lodges, or facilitating the selling of souvenirs.

Wildlife

NRT puts effort into involving the communities in the conservation of the wildlife on their land and showing them its benefits. Northern Kenya hosts a large array of iconic and important wildlife, and NRT has an integral role in the conservation of these species. NRT conservancies house species such as the endangered Grevy’s Zebra. Significant populations of Elephants, Black Rhino and White Rhino can be found in the conservancies, but are under treat from poaching for ivory and rhino horn.

The Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy hosts a notable population of the remaining Hirola antelope in a dedicated predator free sanctuary within the conservancy. It is estimated there are less than 500 Hirola left in the wild and its extinction would be “the first extinction of a mammalian genus on mainland Africa in modern human history” .




Tourism

As a result of NRT efforts to manage the land and conserve the wildlife, northern Kenya has a rich biodiversity of plants and animals, making it a prime tourist destination. The luxury eco-lodges in NRT conservancies are an important source of revenue for the organisation, paying rangers’ salaries, educational bursaries and other priority ventures identified by local communities like water pumps and infrastructure.

There are currently nine lodges within seven NRT conservancies; Saruni Lodge, Sarara Camp, Il Ngwesi, Kitich, Sasaab, Ol Lentille, Ol Gaboli, Koija Star Beds, Tassia.

External links

• Northern Rangelands Trust