A lifelong commitment to meaningful change
Meet Titus Letaapo, The Sarara Foundation’s Director of Community
As a champion of community-based conservation in northern Kenya, Titus Letaapo has developed various strategies that benefit both communities and wildlife.
Through his patience and wisdom, he facilitates vital collaborations between County Governments and communities to help launch sustainable programs, and ensure their continued success. Playing an important role in helping to form Namunyak Community Conservancy three decades ago, he’s also helped to grow it into a model for the rest of the region.
The first time Titus Letaapo, Director for Community at The Sarara Foundation, heard about plans to establish Namunyak Community Conservancy, he was filled with considerable doubts – and wanted to be sure it would benefit the Samburu community as well as our beautiful land.
His commitment to doing the right thing led him on a journey that expanded his knowledge and equipped him with the vision, skills and experience to transform entire regions. Leaving no stone unturned to realise the full potential of community-based conservation, his passion to create optimal conditions for sustainable socio-economic development weaves like a golden thread throughout his life and career.
This is his story…
“In the late 80s and early 90s, things looked a lot different around here and back then, poachers from elsewhere – Somali bandits – led a reign of terror and killed many elephants,” remembers Titus. Apart from the bandits wreaking havoc on our natural heritage, climate change also posed real challenges, especially in terms of the availability of grazing and resources in this semi-arid land.
In the face of these challenges, the Samburu elders looked for a new way forward to ensure the future of our people’s livelihoods, the rangeland they depended on, and the wildlife they’ve lived alongside for thousands of years.
“The threat from outside bandits – and the protection of the elephants as well as the community and their livestock – were some of the driving forces that led to the conservancy we have today,” says Titus.
Titus Letaapo, Director of Community for The Sarara Foundation addressing the audience at World Ranger Day celebrations. Photo by Simon Pocock
A change of mind
To learn more about community conservancies and see if it could work in Namunyak too, the elders journeyed to the Maasai Mara and spent time with much-respected peers. Excited about all they had learned and seen, they returned to share their insights back at home. However, when they told the community about their plan to establish Namunyak Community Conservancy, it was met with outright resistance – especially by Samburu youths.
“We completely rejected their idea,” says Titus, “and believed a conservancy would follow the same model as national parks. We worried that the national government would take parts of Namunyak to form game reserves, and that the community would not have access to their land.”
Realising the need for more awareness – the elders arranged a second visit to the Maasai Mara, and this time, they took 30 Samburu youths with them to experience first-hand what it entailed.
“As one of the young men who joined this journey, Titus discovered the true impact of community owned conservancies – and it started a lifelong commitment to realising its potential.”
It was also the start of our conservancy, and when they returned, the Board was formed, as well as a Village Committee. “At the time, my role was to create awareness of conservation within the community,” remembers Titus. In the years that followed, he filled various roles, including acting manager for the conservancy from 2000-2002, before taking over as manager and filling this role until 2008. During this time, Titus also attended a course in natural resource management at the Southern African Wildlife College in South Africa’s iconic Kruger National Park.
Gaining extensive experience further afield in the following nine years, Titus was actively involved in forming numerous community conservancies across Kenya, including on the north coast. It further cemented his passion for transforming livelihoods and creating sustainable conditions for socio-economic development – while preserving pristine wilderness areas and precious wildlife.
Full circle
By the time Titus returned to Namunyak in 2017 to join The Sarara Foundation as Director of Community, he was widely recognised as a champion for community conservancies. Over the years, his journey back home not only prepared him for the scope of the task – but also confirmed this commitment to help both communities and wildlife flourish and thrive. It sharpened his resolve to restore and maintain natural resources, enriched his experience of community conservancies, and gave him first-hand experience of the region’s unique challenges – and how to bridge these in sustainable ways.
“When I joined The Sarara Foundation, my aim was to work on our Journey to Self-Reliance – which is still very much our focus today.
Of course, we have faced many difficulties and opposition from the Namunyak key partners, but dealt with these along the way. I’m also confident that we are growing and able to support our budgets.”
“With our Journey to Self-Reliance including education and health at first, the Milk to Market program – which benefits women through sustainable economic enterprise and supplies vital nutrition to Reteti Elephant Sanctuary – was eventually added too. With more Milk Mamas and new collection sites being added, the program keeps growing by the day.” As a key participant in the sanctuary, Titus serves on its board, and also filled in briefly as acting manager a few years ago.
“Over time, Namunyak Community Conservancy has become a model for more regions who want to follow in its footsteps, and coming full circle, Titus understands the importance of awareness in supporting them on their journey.”
Remembering his own misgivings about community conservancies, he says, “Initially, I didn’t support the idea at all, but once I understood what it meant, I could support it and encourage others to do the same.”
Today, Samburu County has 20 conservancies, with Namunyak being the first. “All of them use us as a learning point,” says Titus, and adds that there have been many requests for support from neighbouring conservancies. “We are always ready to help.”
“Our model of benefit sharing – with 40% supporting operational costs and 60% supporting the community – is now used in conservancies right across Kenya, and we’ve become a hub for communities from all over who come to us to learn. We’ve received delegations from Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, and even Rwanda and Ethiopia.”
Words of wisdom
Looking to the future, his advice to the next generation of leaders is clear in its purpose and goal: “It is high time to push for more sustainability and reduce our donor dependency – and to grow our capacity, and the community’s incomes through rangeland. Rangeland is everything: if it’s not effective, it will affect our livestock, and our incomes. We need to focus our minds on rangeland rehabilitation and taking care of our forest – which is shrinking; and taking care of our water catchment areas – which are drying. The focus should be on land management, and returning it to where it was.”
Taking a leaf from what he learned from the elders as a young man, Titus says at times, you have to be firm when making decisions that will lead to better things for the community – even if they fight you on it.
“The elders taught me that you have to be a bold risk-taker and remain strong in your decisions when lives can be improved.”
Titus planting a tree at Lolkunyeni Primary School after the World Ranger Day celebrations. Photo by Simon Pocock.
