The Sarara Community Story
The story of Sarara has become a flagship model for conservation on community land across Africa, and continues to act as a model that improves livelihoods through the restoration and preservation of the environment.
The Mathews Range, or Ol Donyo Lenkiyieu, was once renowned for its wealth of elephant and rhino, attracting explorers, hunters and writers from across the world to experience this dramatic wilderness.
Approximately 4,000 black rhino, and 15,000 elephant roamed the area, browsing back the vegetation and maintaining a grassland cycle that attracted a multitude of other life, including buffalo and lion.
The surge in the international demand for elephant ivory and rhino horn coupled with the banning of hunting in 1976 created a highly tenuous environment for many key ecosystems – and wildlife across Kenya suffered.
Without protection, elephant and rhino numbers plummeted, and by the early nineties, there were no black rhino left in the Mathews Range, and only around 400 elephants.
This dramatic change caused a lot of damage to the surrounding ecosystem. With no keystone species to bulk browse the vegetation, the area moved from a grassland cycle to a woodland cycle, leaving the area devoid of any wildlife due to the lack of grass and increased instances of drought. The land also became less and less productive for the Samburu and their livestock.
By 1995, the community conservation movement was beginning to emerge in Kenya, and communities started taking to the idea that conservation could improve their land and livelihoods.
Elephants started to return to the now secure and protected Sarara valley, and as they browsed the bush back and opened up waterholes and grasslands, other wildlife followed. The community in turn started to see tourism revenue through Sarara as travellers from across the world came to see the wildlife, and they also benefited from healthier pastures and water sources for their livestock. Today, the Mathews Range is home to up to 6,000 elephants.
By 2018, poaching numbers were reduced by 90%. Another key achievement includes that 1,300 scholarships and bursaries were awarded to Samburu children!
The Samburu
The Samburu people are of nilo-hamitic stock related to the Laikipiak Maasai. During the mid 19th century they controlled a very large tract of land stretching all the way from Lake Turkana to Ethiopia. As a result of subsequent clashes with the warlike Turkana and Purko however, they were forced to retreat south to their present day range. There are approximately 1,200 registered families making up the ‘Namunak’ community. Visits to local cultural villages may also be arranged, although we do please request that visitors do not take photographs as this changes the people’s lifestyle forever.
PARTNERSHIP
In 1997 the Samburu people formed a close connection and partnership with the Bastard family
Piers and Hilary Bastard are third generation Kenyans. They partnered with the Samburu people in 1997 to bring locally owned tourism and revenue incentive that would drive forward the concept of sustainability for people and wildlife outside of the National Parks and reserves of Kenya. Piers and Hilary’s close connection with the people of Northern Kenya, and celebrated history in the travel industry has allowed for Sarara to flourish as a flagship community driven conservation initiative.
Jeremy and Katie Bastard took over in 2010, and co-founded the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in 2016, along with the Sarara initiative – a program that has seen the construction of the community owned Sarara Treehouses, Reteti House and Samburu Montessori, in an effort to build sustainability for community owned conservation areas.
Brothers Jeremy and Joffy took over the reigns at Sarara in 2010, and Katie Rowe, Jeremy’s wife, co-founded the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in 2016. The same year also saw the establishment of The Sarara Foundation – a program that has seen the construction of the community-owned Sarara Treehouses, Reteti House and Samburu Montessori and Healthcare in an effort to build sustainability for community owned conservation areas.