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Novel idea helping livestock and wildlife share land in Maasai Mara

Tuesday June 07 2016
naretoi

Nelson ole Reiyia (second left) when he was made a Maasai elder, at a ceremony held in Naretoi, in Narok County. With him is Canadian professor Eric Young (left) and other Maasai elders. PHOTO | COURTESY

Eric Young, a social innovation professor at Ryerson University in Canada and Nelson ole Reiyia, a Maasai elder from Kenya, may be poles apart, but a bond they have forged is helping to rewrite the wildlife conservation history of the Naretoi pastoralist community in the Mara division of Narok West.

The land the Naretoi occupy is a critical corridor for the wildebeest migration, one of the planet’s greatest natural wonders, and one that draws visitors from across the globe. But during this epic journey, the animals face numerous dangers including the threat of death as a result of human-wildlife conflict.

In order to keep the animals away, locals on whose land the animals pass have been fencing it off. This has meant that with time, migration routes have disappeared while dispersal areas are fast dwindling.

It is for this reason that the Naretoi community, led by Mr Ole Reiyia, who is also the founder and director of the Oldarpoi Mara Camp, adopted a unique conservation concept dubbed “bold and enlightened.” This initiative is what drew the professor and the Maasai elder together.

The community is consolidating land previously owned by individual families to give wildlife more space via a reserved area, and the community’s livestock adequate grazing grounds.

Grazing is done on rotation, and is guided by set timetables. The community has also started a story-telling café where elders narrate to young people the Naretoi traditional conservation methods that enabled the community to live peacefully with animals. The youth then record the stories for the benefit of future generations.

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Dangers posed by poachers

“This enables us to share the land between the migrating and resident wildlife, the people and their livestock,” said Mr ole Reiyia. “We have also elected a committee of elders to ensure that indigenous knowledge guides conservation practices, which we marry with cutting-edge science.”

The 41-year-old father of two is credited with persuading his fellow elders to embrace the idea.

Mr ole Reiyia’s work was made easier by the fact that the community had already experienced difficulties in sustaining large herds of livestock on the subdivided parcels of land. They had also seen the dangers posed by poachers, and employed 10 community scouts to patrol the area.

“Four of the scouts are reformed poachers with extensive knowledge of the techniques and routes used by poachers,” said Mr ole Reiyia.

But it is the work and involvement of Prof Young, who is credited with creating one of the world’s first social innovation thinktank in partnership with McGill University in Montreal Canada, that has given the “bold and enlightened” project impetus.

The Canadian professor used his vast knowledge and experience in social innovation to assist the community to manage the land consolidation initiative.

In an interview with The EastAfrican, Prof Young said that he got involved after meeting Mr ole Reyia in Australia in 2013, while attending a conference of the World Indigenous Network. The network brings together indigenous and local community land and sea managers to share their knowledge in protecting ecosystems and supporting sustainable livelihoods.

Hasla community

“I am a white man from Canada. I grew up and live downtown in a big city. We don’t have elephants or giraffes or lions here. That’s not my world and I don’t pretend to know anything about it. But I do know something about community and about change,” he said. “That’s why I’m drawn to the endeavour at Naretoi.”

According to the professor, the story of how the Hasla, an indigenous community in British Columbia, Canada recovered their land, “attracted Mr ole Reiyia’s attention and eventually bound us as friends.”

The don said that he had joined hands with elders from the Hasla community to help save their land from rich and powerful forces that wanted to develop it.

“Moral courage and community solidarity combined with a deep understanding of what was precious to them eventually helped to save the largest coastal temperate rain forest in the world,” he said.

Mr ole Reiya ended up inviting Prof Young and his wife, Louise Dennys, one of Canada’s biggest book publishers to Kenya. The Canadian don says that he was fascinated by the rich natural setting of the Mara and the extraordinary culture of the Maasai people, who soon adopted him and made him an elder.

“It’s easy to see why this place is one of the wonders of the natural world, and just how extraordinary the Maasai culture and people are,” said Prof Young.

Naretoi Delta

He said that he became aware of the importance of maintaining what he calls the Naretoi Delta with its numerous streams but “which had increasingly come under great pressure.”

“As we took walks with ole Reiya in the area we started looking at the possibilities of restoring its lost integrity,” said the Canadian professor.

But for the project to be accepted by his community, Mr ole Reiyia knew that he needed to command the respect accorded to elders. In December last year, this came to pass when he was made an elder. He said that it was during the ceremony that “the dream of forming a conservancy began to take shape.”

Soon, this became a living laboratory for Prof Young.

“My deepest beliefs about everything that is possible with community action were affirmed before my eyes at Naretoi. However, I also realised that everything would be lost if the conservancy were not started,” he said.

“Naretoi” in Maa means “the gift of many hands coming together.”

Prof Young also contribute money to pay community members who agreed to lease out their land to the conservancy and to pay community scouts involved in anti-poaching patrols.

Policies 'favour' donors

He cautioned against raising cash from non-governmental organisations, foundations and other donors as this would have diminished the community’s desire for autonomy.

Conservation work has largely depended on donor funding, especially from the West. This has at times led to the adoption of policies and practices that favour the donors. In many cases, community needs are either given minimal attention or ignored altogether.

This has created resentment and apathy against wildlife, with some local people being recruited into poaching gangs that kill animals for their horns or bush meat or because they threaten their livelihoods by attacking their livestock and destroying their farms.

According to Sekerot ole Mpetti, a resident of Siana area outside the Maasai Mara Reserve, in many cases where there are partnerships, the communities are fleeced by the investors who get the lion’s share of the proceeds from tourism businesses operating in the conservancies.

“Besides getting low individual payments, communities have been making agreements that bar their livestock from grazing in the conservancies, which have plenty of pasture and water resources.”

The community has also created a bursary fund which is partly financed from the payments made to families that have leased their land.

A plan is also underway to set up a high-end tourism camp with eight luxury tents, whose proceeds are expected to finance the lease payments and meet other needs.

Although the Naretoi community remains at the steering wheel, the new conservation model is supported by AVAAZ, a world-wide network of about 40 million people that fights for community rights and social justice.

The Trolltech, a Norwegian foundation, has also helped the community with special monitoring and mapping tools, while a Sweden-based organisation supports children.

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