Raising Generations for Conservation
To create lasting change for people and nature, elders and youth share in the benefits of community conservancies.
When Doris Nabaala was a young girl growing up in Lemek, just outside of the Maasai Mara region, she remembers a green Land Rover that would come to pick up her dad once a month. It brought him into the Mara to Olchorro Oirouwa—the place where he secured money to pay her school fees.
Her father, Kanyike Ole Nabaala, owned land in this area, just outside the Maasai Mara National Reserve. He was a co-founder of the Mara Olchoro Oirouwa Conservancy, which was established in 1991 by community elders under the leadership of the highly respected paramount Chief Lerionka Ole Ntutu, the late father to the current Governor of Narok County, Patrick Ole Ntutu
“Growing up, I’d say we were all interested in the community conservancy that’s paying our school fees,” Doris said. “We grew up knowing this is Olchorro Oirowua Conservancy, and our dad gets money from the wildlife that roam around this area, for me and for him.”
Kenya’s Community Conservancies
Wildlife and people both benefit from the community conservancy model.
ExploreLater, Kanyike would take his children to Olchorro around Christmas to visit the rhino sanctuary at the conservancy. It was clear to Doris then how special the place was to her father.
“When he tells the story, you can see him passionate and very emotional about it,” Doris said. “It’s something that he values and loves, because that's what has taken us to school. He never received any formal training; he didn’t have a white-collar job. So conservation work helped my father educate us.”
The conservancy was founded to address growing conflicts between farming and wildlife. Wildlife negatively affected farming, the main source of income in the area. Rather than attempting to oust the wildlife, they sought to make it generate monetary value to the community.
With support from the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, the conservancy emerged as a leader in community-driven wildlife management. This progress was solidified in 2013 when, with backing from the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA), conservancies gained legal recognition under Kenya’s wildlife law.
“Cows alone wouldn’t pay the school fees, especially in periods of droughts that were becoming more frequent in the area,” Kanyike recalled. Droughts would be so severe that many livestock would die of lack of pasture and water or would be too emaciated to fetch good prices in the market. With conservancy income, "Our children have managed to become teachers and managers, and others have even gone abroad from the money we get through conservation.”
Leading a Conservancy
Once a young girl visiting the conservancy that paid for her education, Doris is now the manager of Mara Olchoro Oirouwa Conservancy— the first woman to lead a conservancy in the Maasai Mara landscape.
“Today I am here trying to make it better than I found it," Doris said, “so the next generation, our children and people that come after me, will find something that I have nurtured and taken care of.”
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The movement towards empowering women in the conservancy didn’t stop with hiring Doris. Around one-third of the landowners in the conservancy are now women—elders are leaving their lands to their daughters to manage and reap the benefits.
“I think our parents have really seen the world changing and despite the fact that they are not from this generation, they have tried to fit into this generation, understand us and try to support us,” Doris said. “I think every parent is proud to see their daughter, their son doing something like even going to the field. It makes you proud.”
The Next Generation
Olchorro, like all of Maasai Mara, is a popular spot for tourism. Tourism operators sign 25-year leases with the conservancy that puts money in the pockets of more than 150 community members who own land. The long-term leases are reliable income for community members that spans generations. That makes conservation financially competitive with land uses like farming that are less beneficial to nature.
Wildlife conservation is compatible with the community tradition of keeping livestock; they complement each other. When tourism collapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the community relied on livestock income. During droughts, when livestock fetch low prices in the market, tourism income helps to diversify livelihoods.
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“The next generation that will come will be happy and be able even to sign for more years in conservation because we can tell them the benefits,” said Doris. “It should look really lucrative for them to be able to renew their leases.”
Kanyike, at age 72, hopes the legacy continues. That younger generations will continue the conservation work that has benefited both wildlife and the community.
“The Maasai say, land goes nowhere,” he said. “People will die, cows will die, but the land remains there. So I encourage the young people to be custodians of their land as future generations will benefit from it.”
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