A Community Business: Elerai Ranch and Conservation Area, Kenya
African Wildlife Foundation
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Abstract: Can small group ranches where individuals have strong family ties be the way forward for sustainable livelihoods and conservation in the aftermath of group ranch sub-division in the Amboseli area of Kenya? Sub-division of communal group ranches and consequent conversion of land to uses incompatible with conservation is threatening both rural livelihoods and critical conservation areas in the Amboseli system. The African Wildlife Foundation has been working with a group of eight closely related landowners in an area of great strategic importance to wildlife in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, Kenya to develop and implement natural resource management plans that when implemented should result in: enhanced and diversified livelihoods that are compatible with traditional Maasai lifestyles; development and adoption of environmentally sound land management practices and; securing of critical habitat for wildlife to support continuing ecological integrity of Amboseli and Kilimanjaro National Parks.