The African Conservation Fund

In May the United National Development Programme announced that Shompole Community Trust has won one of its prestigious Equator Awards for 2006.

The Equator Prize is the flagship of the Equator Initiative, a partnership that brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and communities to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Shompole Community Trust was one of five indigenous communities recognized by the 2006  Equator Prize. In announcing the win, the Equator Initiative wrote:

Since 1979, the Shompole Ranch, spanning over 62,000 hectares of Kenya’s grasslands and savannahs, has preserved and restored the local environment. Re-emerging and thriving wetlands have attracted an increasing number of tourists. Revenue from ecotourism has been invested through the Shompole Community Trust in protecting and restoring the environment, as well as in funding healthcare services, education, water supply, and school fees. The trust, a legally recognized corporation, is owned by the Maasai people and addresses issues of socio-economic development on behalf of the community. [Shompole Mountain shown above.]

"A simple fact lies at the heart of the Equator Initiative's work: the world's greatest concentrations of biological wealth are found in the tropics, in countries that also have some of the highest levels of poverty," explains the Initiative's website. 

Shompole, between Lakes Magadi and Natron in the Great Rift Valley of southern Kenya, lies at the heart of the world's richest region for vertebrate diversity. Their stewardship has helped bring back dwindling elephant herds, as well as many other wildlife. 

Working with partners like the African Conservation Centre, the community set aside one of the first community wildlife sanctuaries, developed land-use plans, engage in science, and attract eco-tourism. Through years of experience, the community has learned hard lessons in how to build business partnerships that benefit the community as well as the investor. Read here about a recent news story in which Yusuf Patenya explains how difficult it is for communities to truly realize the full economic benefit of their own wildlife and lands.

The near future is bringing exciting developments that promise to be as innovative as always:

●    Recognizing that there are great threats on the near horizon to the world as well as the South Rift region from global climate change, the community is seizing the opportunity to turn those threats into opportunities. Along with their sister community of Olkiramatian they will be working with the African Conservation Centre and specialists like Dr. David Western to link South Rift conservation of biodiversity to carbon-offset credits in the West.

●    Working with new partners like the African Conservation Fund, they will bring in investment share-partners to strengthen existing and build new eco-tourism ventures in the South Rift.

●    And Shompole will continue to be a key member of and help build the South Rift Association of Land Owners–continuing to elevate the lessons learned at Shompole to a regional scale so that dozens of other Maasai communities can build socio-economic through conservation programs and ecotourism.

Please contact us if you would like to be a part of supporting this superb effort.