CONSERVATION TOURISM – THE CHELI & PEACOCK STORY
Sept 2009

Dear partner in conservation –

A letter to share with you our experiences in Conservation Tourism, and our ethos for sustainability.

Ever since we started this adventure 25 years ago, we have sought out ways to both support eco-systems and to ensure we ourselves make minimal environmental impact.  We started our African safari company because we loved the wilderness, and we enjoyed sharing it with others – so what could we do to preserve it and make sure our tourism enterprises partnered with conservation in a sustainable way?

It was clear, that with 70% of Kenya’s wildlife outside National Parks – this was where we could make a difference.  Community land surrounding parks and reserves is the major part of the eco-systems.  In Kenya our parks and reserves do not have fences, the animals are oblivious of the boundaries, and they are free to roam and migrate within vast ecosystems that incorporate mostly private land.  The landowners receive no income from the wildlife, and bear the brunt of lion raids on livestock and injury from rogue buffalo.

In 1992 we partnered with the community outside West Gate of Samburu National Reserve.  We put our Samburu camp there, and the community received rent, viewing fees, employment etc.  The first time this community had received sustainable tourism revenue.

In the late 1980s we were one of the founding partners in Campfire Conservation Ltd.  A small group of like minded operators that paid rent and viewing fees for mobile camps, and created employment for the community bordering the Masai Mara Reserve to the north, where Elephant Pepper Camp is situated (the same site we have used since those days).  This is probably one of the most important and vital ecosystems in Kenya, always used for gamedrives, but with none of the revenue reaching the community.  The land was community land, and Campfire was the first organization to give the Mara community, directly to the families on the ground in cash, any tourism revenue.

In 1993 we took over a site belonging to a private landlord in Amboseli, bordering Amboseli National Park, and built Tortilis Camp.  The site had been promised to a developer with plans for a 200 bed hotel – thank goodness we managed to take it over!  Being one of the first “eco-lodges” of its kind in East Africa, Tortilis soon gained recognition and was awarded the UK “Tourism for Tomorrow” award in 1996.  We are still the only lodge in Amboseli that trains and employs from the local community.

In 1999 we built Elsa’s Kopje in Meru National Park.  Previously, Meru’s only lodge, government owned, had closed some time before and the park was suffering with little or no income or visitors.  There was talk in government of de-gazetting it, and turning the fertile well watered land into rice plantations.  Old hands in the industry told us we were mad, but Elsa’s Kopje has proved the sceptics wrong, has a worldwide reputation as one of the best lodges on the safari circuit, and its existence ensures that Meru National Park is a viable conservation area, with plentiful wildlife including 80 rhino.

In 2006 we built Joys Camp in Shaba National Reserve, part of the Samburu eco-system, another conservation backwater that received little income and with a sceptical community around it.  Joys Camp has opened up the eastern end of the reserve, and has good community relations, providing training and employment; and once again, we are working towards putting a vital and very beautiful area on the map to ensure its sustained existence.

By 2005 Campfire lost its effectiveness when the community lands surrounding the Masai Mara were divided up into individual parcels with title deeds.  In response, we formed the Mara North Conservancy, and brought in all the stakeholders in the area.  As we write, we have jointly leased 900 parcels, 85% of the land, ie 77,000 acres with a mandate to give each individual landowner a guaranteed income from tourism for his land, together with conservation management and transparent accountability.  In recent years the area has earned in park fees in excess of US$1.2m per year, with the individual landowners seeing very little of it.  MNC has faced a politically difficult task, but vital for the sustainability of the Serengeti / Masai Mara eco-system.  What could be more important?

In 2009 we bought Kitich Camp, in the Mathews Mountain Range forest.  An idyllic hideaway in primeval forest.  Giulio Bertolli had already ensured that the community benefit directly from the lodge with bednight fees and employment, and we have brought Kitich Camp into the Namunyak Conservancy, partnering with Ian Craig and his excellent work with the Northern Rangelands Trust.  Namunyak Conservancy is supported by The Tusk Trust, and although as we write still low on clients, Kitich Camp pays the highest bednight fee to the Namunyak Conservancy.

From July 2009 we have taken over the management of Lewa Safari Camp on Lewa  Wildlife Conservancy.  LWC is a story of success in wildlife conservation, rhino breeding, community education and outreach.  With our experience in building eco-lodges, we aim to ensure that Lewa Safari Camp is itself ecologically fit to represent one of the most successful conservation stories in Africa, as well as offer outstanding food, great guiding, and the opportunity for guests to participate in Lewa’s good work.

Hand in hand with our work directly with communities, we have always developed our safari camps to be the most ecologically sound.  We started with mobile camps, and our motto was “take only pictures, leave only footprints”, and it was true.  In the Mara, our Elephant Pepper Camp remains very low key and completely removable.  When we built our lodges, we kept them small, trained our guides well, gave the local community training and employment, support for schools, and right from the beginning worked out rubbish recycling / removal systems, solar and efficient energy, etc.  By the time we built Joy’s Camp we put in state of the art led and solar technology and run the generator very little, three years later we have been able to put into Kitich Camp almost space-age led and solar technology, we do not have to run the generator at all!  All expensive equipment, but as the L’Oreal ads say, “because it’s worth it”!

Working on the ground, we realized that we needed to participate on a national level to battle uncontrolled and often outright harmful development in fragile areas.  To this end, Stefano has participated on the Kenya Association of Tour Operators board for over 15 years.  He lobbied the tourism community to put in place a moratorium on development in the Mara with a KATO EGM in Oct 1998, and worked on the founding of the Kenya Tourism Board in 1997, and Kenya Tourism Federation in 1998.

We have discovered over the years that our clients feel the same way as us.  They too fall in love with the untouched wilderness, and appreciate the fact that their presence has helped preserve what they experience.

Very best wishes to you all –

LIZ & STEFANO CHELI