Jan 10, 2016
With just 14 days left in the bush, I’m reflecting on the vast differences in not only countries in Africa, but regions, towns and landscapes.
Many quotes, books, films conjure up images of the African Savannah: tall sun-drenched, golden brown grasses swaying lazily in a gentle wind, acacia trees on a hilltop bathed in the rainbow of a setting sun, a bunch of giraffes strolling across a hill, crisp and dewy mornings kicked off by a symphony of birds, lions lazing under trees and shrubs until dusk when they take down a wildebeest, elephant families grazing in the pastures with Zebra and antelope plentiful amongst the open grasslands of the vast African countryside.
While some of this is true, sometimes in some places, what I’ve found is that most of this is untrue, most times in most places. Africa is like a tattered, well-loved, and multi-generational quilt – each country, region, county, town, tribe – though sharing a common ancestry – are unique in look, feel, shape, size, challenge and opportunity. With 47 different Masai tribes in Kenya alone, and 3 generations into a colonial hangover, Kenya is as diverse as many continents. Never have I experienced a country so shattered by political (tribal) alliances and loyalties. I’m still unsure what the central government’s function is. Each section of patchwork, while vastly unique and independent of the others, has been woven together to make Africa what it is today – a place of great opportunity and great conflict.
In fact, northern Kenya – tribes are still warring and cattle raiding, and the government turns an eye because the land is not see to be of great enough value to step in. While this has served the area well in some regards, it makes for a feeling of uncertainty. NRT (northern rangelands trust) – brain child of Ian craig – now run by Mike Harrison, has done some amazing things for this region. Namely, NRT supports 33 conservancies in the northern and coastal areas of Kenya in an effort to develop resilient community conservancies that transform lives, secure peace, and conserve natural resources. Creating permanent jobs for over 765 people in the region and generating over Ksh. 47 million for the community, and a decline of 43% in elephant poaching since 2012, NRT is paving the way on how to run the conservancy model here in Africa. www.nrt-kenya.org
My question however is, when government does decide this region is important – what will happen? Will the land be parceled up like it was in the Mara? The notion of community group ranches and community conservancies is unique to NRT as the Mara is based on a completely different model. I guess NRT can continue to do what it does and not wait anxiously for the government, but just get on with it and make a difference today.
As I sit here in my cozy, warm and inviting room at Lewa House which Sophie and Callum have done a fantastic job at building, I am struck by the uniqueness of just this part of the world. Lewa House part of the Lewa Conservancy in northern Kenya, which is part of the NRT…and to be frank, Lewa seems to be the epicenter of NRT, and rightfully so as Lewa pioneered the approach to the community owned conservancy and really proved this model could work. Though the 2nd conservancy of this kind – Il Ngwesi was the first, Lewa has redefined what it means to provide fantastic tourism experiences while supporting the community and protecting wildlife. Now there are 32 other conservancies that follow in the Lewa footsteps and hope to build a successful model. Lewa, unique and brave in approach, houses 132 rhinos – black and white. The security for these rhinos alone costs $1.6MM. While most conservancies wouldn’t take on such a massive responsibility, Lewa has not only done so, but it breeding and providing rhinos to other areas in Kenya that can responsibly handle rhino population. With rhino horn being a cure for cancer – WHAT?!!! – and each horn worth $2MM shillings ($200,0000 USD), these rhinos are under extreme threat and the efforts to protect them are costly yet effective. I’ll come back to that at a later time.
Back to the view – I look out upon rolling greenish hills dotted with acacia trees, thornbushes and grasslands encased by mountains/hills on 2 sides. Off to the South is Mt. Kenya towering at 17,057 Feet, and to the west is Lollidaiga Hills. This area is fortunate in that it is right near Mt. Kenya which provides ample supply of rain…plus a couple hundred thousand years ago, when Mt Kenya last erupted, left the soils very rich with volcanic ash. Just beyond the boundaries of this conservancy are acres and acres of farms, wheat and flowers do well here. Especially in the South. And the area is a meeting point for 3 different tribes – Masai, Kikuru and Meru. While this can be challenging with tribal politics and fighting for what seems to be ethnic challenges (it’s always about cattle funny enough), it’s also a positive when it comes to security and rich cultural diversity.
Here, in this 62,000 acre fenced conservancy, the landscape is welcoming – the grass is thick and blade like – green and alive. It’s perennial here vs. the Mara as annual. While there are open patches of just grassland, Lewa also houses swamps/marshes, and many acacia and yellow fever trees. These trees don’t actually cause yellow fever, it’s an old tale borm from people contracting yellow fever near these trees…when the culprit was actually the swampy area the trees are found in. As I said, the permanent water sources of the Sirokoi and Lewa rivers nourish this land. Wildlife flourishes here, in fact, this is the only place you’ll see white and black rhino alive in the wild – though it’s fenced, they are not zoo like or tamed animals…they just happened to be protected by rangers, guide posts, tracking dogs and nearly $2MM worth of annual security costs.
Though looking not so white, the above is in fact a white rhino…white rhinos got their name by a misunderstanding of sorts…white rhinos have WIDE mouths and when the settlers heard it, they thought the locals were saying WHITE – hence the name white rhino. With some significant differences, it’s now easy to spot a black vs. white rhino.
Mt Kenya – to the south, has a lovely forest surruounding it and has been declared a UNICEF World Heritage Site – Lewa is now part of that, which is a huge accomplishment in terms of saving the land for future conseration and community use. Sadly, the about 50% of the forest has been taken done for coffee, tea or logging – prior t the UNICEF declaration.
Besides the prized and prehistoric looking rhinos, elephants come and go as they please, and often times travel north through Sarara and the Matthews range all the way up to Marsabit area. Many elephants are collared to research, study, protect and track behavior and key corridor areas so that land use planning can be informed by elephant movements.
Grevy’s zebra are also found here- only 2000 left in the world…larger than traditional zebras, they do not breed with them and are completely different species. The stripes stop at the belly – it’s quite an interesting site.
Many Eland roam these parts, along with impala, oryx, waterbuck, gnunok (another type of antelope), grand gazelle, bushbuck, dick dick, cliffspringers, lions, cheetahs, leopards, cerval, cevet, and calico cats. Buffalo, tortoise, hyenas – stripe and spotted, wild dogs, birds of prey, jackal, vultures, porcupine, and the elusive (thankfully) scorpion. I keep forgetting and just slip into my shoes without checking…apparently they aren’t poisonous but they feel like a bee sting X 10.
This area is so vastly different from the landscape of Sarara and Sera, which though were green when we were there – lush and thick with grass, bush and trees – is usually brown, barren and desolate. It has no permanent water source and during the dry season is one of the harshest areas in Kenya – in fact, many livestock, people and animals just don’t survive it. Right near the matthews range, the area seems to be sheltered from harsh conditions, but there is no break, no advantage. Water must be gravity fed down into the camp that exists there and this area is where the famous singing wells are found. Samburu take cattle and livestock to the river bed, dig deep down in search of the water table, sing to their livestock and hope to survive on the little water they find.
We experienced Sarara as very thick bush, hard to see anything. Very green, almost jungle like at this time, but then again, they haven’t had rains like this in 20 years!! Tall trees in places, tall bushes, thorn bushes, and not much grass. A few elephants were spotted – particularly as we got closer to the Samburu county reserve. We visited Frank Pop and Save the Elephants – based here in the reserve. A few reticulated giraffe were about (named this for the rectangular pattern, very distinct from the mara giraffe)
kudu, wharthog, the long necked antelope called the gnunok, seen below….
the genet cat (mongoose family), along with lots of dick dick, birds, guinea fowl, midges, flies and mosquitos. Wildlife is not abundant here, due to the poaching that occurred for so long nearly decimating the elephant population in northern Kenya. And completely decimating the rhino population. They are starting to come back – feeling the safety of the NRT conservancies and the 76 rangers that are deployed in Namumyak alone. And though the rhinos were wiped out, there is hope yet as some were just transferred to Sera from Lewa in May of 2015.
Laikipia area, also in Northern Kenya, was very dry, not much grass, mostly cactus and harsh brown, dry lands with some thorny bushes…wildlife seemed to be rare. Maybe an elephant or two, but nothing else really. I hear it could be great for wildlife, but I just didn’t experience it. TNC (The Nature Conservancy) just bough Loi Saba Lodge in the area – hopefully they will have some success in pulling the various players together to form a meaningful conservancy, as individual owners and competing interests don’t seem to work here in Kenya.
In the week or so I’ve spent in Northern Kenya, I’m struck by the vastly differently landscape to southern Kenya and even more so, the vastly different model being used by NRT and Lewa. This community owned group model – while maybe not perfect – is pretty darn close to it. I’ll be seeing the impact it’s having on the community later today or tomorrow – the schools, clinics, livestock trading program, water and healthy programs….all of which are critical to positive and trustworthy community relations. Without this, the conservancy can do everything in the world to bring in tourists, protect wildlife and generate revenue, but without community support – it will fail – quickly. The community provides the support to move things forward. Without the elders on board, NRT and Lewa would not be survive. These rhinos would be gone, and the land barren from over-grazing.
I don’t mean to make it sound like this area has it all figured out and the land will be usable for the net 20 years – in fact, the scary thing is that 40% of the land of the NRT is on the brink of being completely dead – never to be brought back. And the answer to this is not simple – the people here are nomadic pasturalists, grazing until the grass is gone and moving on to greener pastures is not going to disappear overnight. This necessary evolution and culturalal shift away from destroying the land to proper planned land use, will take time. Time we and wildlife may not have.
