Community-led Conservation
Stories, evidence and reporting on conservation led by the communities that live with wildlife.
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Elephants on Mount Elgon in western Kenya appear to seek out medicinal plants when they are unwell. The evidence comes from the Sabaot scouts and elders who live alongside them.
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The Elephant Mamas LAMP began this week in Mayianat, a community conservancy near Dol Dol in Laikipia North, about 52 kilometres north of Nanyuki: three days of training, Monday to Wednesday, for thirty women, led by Heiz Wadegu and Esther Gilisho of Forward Consulting. The women in this cohort live inside a major elephant corridor.…
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At the end of July, twenty-five Moran herders in Laikipia County, Kenya, completed the first module of Rangelands LAMP, a new version of the Leadership and Management Program built for the people who actually run the grazing lands. Allan Ward, who leads the course, wrote to MSWC the next day: the impact “went way beyond…
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Kenya’s first national conference dedicated to community-led conservation takes place from 2 to 6 November 2026 at Brackenhurst Conference Centre in Limuru, just outside Nairobi. MSWC contributed funding for the conference organization. The gathering will bring together community leaders from across Africa, conservation practitioners, policymakers, funders and international partners, with 150 to 200 participants expected.…
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MSWC President Guy Pfeffermann has written about Ewaso Lions for WellBeing International. The piece traces how a small research project in northern Kenya grew into one of the most effective community-led conservation organizations in the region. Ewaso Lions was founded in 2007 by Dr. Shivani Bhalla and Samburu pastoralist Jeneria Lekilelei. They began with a…
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The need For more than ten years, funders have backed the work at the center of community-led conservation across East and Southern Africa — training rangers, restoring rangelands, protecting wildlife corridors, building water access. Much of that work has succeeded. But the people doing it — board members, managers, rangers, herders, women’s groups — have…
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Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) cites Good Governance, Effective Management, and Financial Viability as the three pillars underpinning NRT’s approach to conservancy resilience. The Report outlines Good Governance as “community-driven decision making that results in strong community ownership, equitable benefit distribution, and transparent and accountable conservancy boards and administration”. MSWC contributed to the realisation of these…
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Women from the Lekurruki and Il Ngwesi Community Conservancies in Kenya who completed the Leadership and Management Program (LAMP) in February 2021, were asked to evaluate their experience of the training and share insights into their newly acquired knowledge. The training consisted of monthly two to three day modules with module one kicking off in…
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April 21, 2021 – Speaking during an Earth Week webinar hosted by Maliasili entitled Community-led conservation in Africa, Daniel Sopia, Chief Executive Officer at the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, made the following remarks about the changes he’s observing in wildlife conservation management in that region: From Kenya’s Maasai Mara side, I think what makes…
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An Update from our “Train Women Leaders for Wildlife Conservation” LAMP cohort. Allan Ward, February 3, 2021. This was the comment of one of the 30 women trainees during the third module of their Leadership and Management Program (LAMP) training. The woman, who serves on the board of the community wildlife conservancy, went on to…