Mara Naboisho Conservancy

This reserve is located North-East of the Masai Mara National Reserve, it is the second private reserve of the Masai Mara in size; it was established in 2010, the most recent, and covers an area of 200 sq km.

This Conservancy was established as a nature conservation area and as an area for grazing and it is located North-East of the Masai Mara National Reserve, East of the Olare Motorogi Conservancy and West of the Kinyei Conservancy.

Like all the Conservancy is a buffer zone where animals can move freely out of the confines of the National Reserve; in this way, the corridors of the Great Migration are preserved, most important fact for the protection of animals and for the survival of the Great Masai Mara Ecosystem.

The concentration of animals here is particularly high and in its savannah and wild forests are regularly sighted elephants, giraffes, Thomson gazelles, Grant gazelles, hippos, impalas, zebras, wildebeests and other herbivorous; there are also many predators such as lions, cheetahs, hyenas and leopards; finally you can spot, with a little more luck, wild dogs, caracals, serval, honey badgers, aardwolves and aardvarks

Furthermore, this private reserve is located on the migratory routes of the least known Loito Hills Migration: these herds of wildebeests at the end of the dry season, instead of going down to the Serengeti National Park, come back from the Masai Mara National Reserve and move East to the Loito Hills area and some to the North Conservancy, including the Naboisho Mara Conservancy.

Finally, the reserve is a paradise for bird watchers who can spot some 300 species of birds, including roller, eagles, hawks, hornbills, shrikes, weavers and many others.

Here you can perform many more tasks than those allowed in the Masai Mara National Reserve, in detail, in addition to the classic game drives, you can make walking safaris and night drives, you can visit the Masai villages to discover the culture and lifestyle of these people; you can also spend a night out from the lodge or tented camp, for a more direct contact with nature, in temporary camps.

Naboisho in Maa language, the language of the Maasai people, means "meeting", in fact, the private reserve is born from the desire of local communities who met to do something for the conservation but also to improve the living conditions of the owners of the lands.

There are about 500 Masai landowners in the conservancy, and in 2008 their representatives met with some conservationists, environmentalists and some investors in the tourism industry to define a model that would combine the preservation and maintenance of traditional culture and in 2010, a 15 years agreement was signed to establish the Naboisho Mara Conservancy.

The council of the reserves is composed by three elderly Maasai and three managers of tourist facilities and this is to ensure that all interests are represented and also to fairly resolve disputes.

Main objectives of the Mara Naboisho Conservancy

Preserving natural resources and the habits and traditions of the local communities
Promoting tourism that is the main source of income
Contributing to the improvement of the conditions of local communities by creating projects in various fields and creating jobs in the lodges and tented camps.

Only the guides of tented camps and lodges may lead safaris within the reserve and this is because these leaders have committed themselves to respect an ethic code of conduct of their activities, in the respect of environment and wildlife.

A rotation plan of the pasture for livestock was also implemented to prevent overgrazing.

Since it was established the reserve positive results were immediately recorded: the species of animals and also the number of specimens per species have increased; there were fewer cases of poaching and the attempt to resolve the conflict between the presence of humans and wild animals has begun to bear its fruits.

The revenues of the Conservancy are intended to improve the living conditions of local people, different projects are funded with the aim, among others, to take care of health, education, clean water, work and projects dedicated to women.

In the Mara Naboisho Conservancy there are some very important conservation projects: the Big Cat Project that deals with locating the lions, leopards and cheetahs and study them, it also deals with resolving conflicts with man and educate local communities; the Elephant Voices mainly dealing with monitoring the movements of elephants in the area, trying to identify routes and to prevent poaching.

While the Mara Naboisho Lion Project has a very ambitious goal: to try to identify the movements of the lion prides in the private reserve and to report on time to the Masai shepherds where to go with their livestock and where it is better not to venture out to the presence of the lions; the ambitious goal is to minimize accidents due to the presence at the same time in a place of cattle and lions.

The latter project is not yet at full capacity but, thanks to the support of the Kenya Wildlife Trust and the Danish Zoological Society, is starting to give some encouraging results.