OUR PROGRAMS
African Conservation Centre – US partners with leaders in community-based conservation whose proven approach links protecting biodiversity with improving livelihoods and promoting learning exchanges. In short, we bring together the people and resources needed for long-term solutions for conservation in East Africa.
KENYA-TANZANIA BORDERLAND CONSERVATION INITIATIVE
The Kenya-Tanzania borderlands region supports some of the richest wildlife populations on earth through a network of national parks and reserves, as well as the pastoral lands that connect them. Conservation of the borderlands region is critical to the long-term viability of both elephant and lion metapopulations.
SORALO GAME SCOUTS
Since their inception in 1997, the Game Scouts have gained momentum around the country in areas where communities have conservancies and want to increase protection for wildlife, tourists or livestock. Community scouts have an advantage over…
REBUILDING THE PRIDE
Rebuilding the Pride, run by the South Rift Association of Landowners (SORALO), a Maasai landowner group, aims to increase lion and other carnivore numbers across the South Rift area of Kenya. The program focuses on reducing human-wildlife conflict, preventing range fragmentation and maintaining healthy prey numbers.
MAASAI-MALPAI “TWO COWBOYS” PROJECT
In 2004, ACC-US organized a series of exchange visits between Kenyan Maasai pastoralists and Arizona ranchers and conservationists known as the Malpai Borderlands Group. Participants discovered that they share similar threats to their landscapes, wildlife, and ultimately the future of their cultures. These cowboys from different continents explored a range of topics including ameliorating the fragmentation and degradation of rangelands, ecotourism, and best land and cattle management practices.
KENYAN BIODIVERSITY ATLAS
African Conservation Centre was commissioned in 2012 by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources with support from DANIDA to be the lead organization to compile the Biodiversity Atlas of Kenya. Through a wide collaborative process, the Atlas aims to develop an illustrative guide to Kenya’s biodiversity, to document Kenya’s natural capital; its biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports and to assemble the scattered and disparate datasets that exist across various institutions into a common integrated biodiversity database and atlas.
MAASAI – NAVAJO CULTURAL EXCHANGE
The Maasai have become the iconic face of Africa in recent decades, thanks to popular culture and mass tourism. Despite their fame, the Maasai are fast losing their material culture and profound knowledge of livestock, environment and wildlife.
AMBOSELI CONSERVATION PROGRAM
The Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) began in 1967 when David Western studied the ecology of the Maasai Amboseli National Reserve to address a deep conflict over its status and future. Conservationists, insistent that overgrazing was destroying Amboseli’s famous fever tree woodland and its wildlife, were pressing the government to create a national park and exclude the Maasai. The Kajiado County Council rejected the claim and insisted on control of the reserve and its tourist revenues.
YOUTH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
ACC has partnered with Cheli & Peacock Community Trust and the Mara North Conservancy to improve conservation education and promote the protection of Kenya’s biodiversity for the next generation. Since the project was launched in June 2012, the Mara North Sub Region Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) Action Group has been…
WOMEN’S ENTERPRISE
ACC has partnered with Cheli & Peacock Community Trust and the Mara North Conservancy to improve conservation education and promote the protection of Kenya’s biodiversity for the next generation. Since the project was launched in June 2012, the Mara North Sub Region Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) Action Group has been…
GNU LANDSCAPES
In collaboration with Colorado State University, ACC oversees PhD students. “Gnu Landscapes” refers to the program’s two main focus areas—wildebeest, or gnu, and changes in the landscapes they inhabit.
LALE’ENOK RESOURCE CENTRE
Lale’enok Resource Centre is named after the traditional Maasai scouts who gather information vital to the welfare of their families and herds. The pastoralist Maasai people recognize the great potential for community conservation projects in the southern Rift Valley of Kenya. Of equal importance is the Maasai’s understanding that conservation strategies should be continually evaluated and adapted to ensure that local people and ecosystems are benefitting.
UASO NGIRO BABOON PROJECT
Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project, (formerly the Gilgil Baboon Project) is located on the Eastern Laikipia Plateau between the Mukogodo Forest and Mt. Kenya. The research focuses on the socio-ecology and cognition of wild baboons as they make the transition to the modern context of human dominated ecosystems.