In Kenya's Amboseli region, a 29,000-acre conservancy now keeps open a vital corridor for more than 2,200 endangered elephants, because IFAW chose to build with Maasai communities rather than around them. The land stays with the Maasai, who are paid to keep it wild.
Conservation Starts With People
Azzedine T. Downes, President and CEO of IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), puts it simply: local communities always need to be central to conservation decisions. Around Amboseli, Maasai families were subdividing their communal land into private parcels, and every parcel sold for development could close a route that wildlife has used for generations.
A Corridor Kept Open
IFAW's Room to Roam initiative answers that by leasing land from Maasai landowners in the Illaingarunyoni Conservancy, 29,000 acres serving as a critical migration corridor for 2,200 endangered elephants moving between Amboseli National Park and the Loita–Maasai Mara ecosystem.
Partners, Not Spectators
In March 2024, more than 1,000 Maasai landowners unanimously agreed to commit their parcels to conservation by leasing them to IFAW, which pays them for the land it protects. The model was proven first in the nearby Kitenden Conservancy, where a tourism investor has since signed a 25-year lease with the landowners. Illaingarunyoni is also home to rarely seen species such as African wild dogs, pangolins and bat-eared foxes.
Wildlife cannot survive in isolated sanctuaries. Species need space to roam, and so do the people living among them. The most lasting solutions come when communities are participants, not spectators.
_Sources: Azzedine Downes, "How we work with the Maasai community to give wildlife room to roam", IFAW, 5 August 2024. IFAW press release, "Maasai community commits to protecting last remaining wildlife corridor between Amboseli and the Mara", 6 March 2024._