We wish all our friends a Happy Easter, wherever you may be!
We sincerely hope that you and your families are staying safe and well during these anxious times as we wait for the global Pandemic to come to an end so that we can all get back to living our lives as normal once again.
Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on our "Conservancy Concept" in Kenya
We are writing to let you know about the serious impacts that the closing down of international tourism is having on the community conservancies in Kenya with which we have been involved now for more than 20 years. We would like to share our thoughts on a solution to get through the next few weeks and months while there is no income from safari tourism to pay the rents to the Maasai families or wages to the community staff working in the conservancies.
Following the outbreak of the Pandemic a month ago, we have seen a total collapse of tourism in Kenya. This is having a devastating impact on the funding of the Conservancies which we support financially. After the suspension last month of tourist flights into Kenya from countries having cases of Coronavirus, we shut all our Porini Camps and our Maasai staff are all on leave now, at home with their families, staying in their villages and homesteads and taking care of their livestock. Everyone is fine at the moment and we have briefed all our team about the importance of hand-washing and social distancing while the Kenya government also has been doing all possible to publicise the measures being taken to prevent the spread of the virus within Kenya.
With the closing down of safari tourism for the immediate future and no early indication of when visitors will be be able to return, there is growing concern about the welfare of those Maasai communities who depend on the income from tourism in the conservancies. There are also fears that the future of these important areas of protected wildlife habitat may be threatened with serious consequences for the teeming wildlife species that have made them their home.
Gamewatchers Safaris directly employs over 240 members of the local Maasai families as rangers and camp staff in our camps and in the conservancies that we have been involved in setting up in partnership with the local communities in the Amboseli and Mara eco-systems. We also pay rents direct to hundreds of Maasai families for the plots of land that have been leased to form the three Mara conservancies in which we are involved.
The annual cost to us of these wages and the land rents to the families is close to US$1.5 million and it is the income from our Porini Camps and our other safari tours that enables us at Gamewatchers Safaris to pay these amounts to the local people as rents and wages.
Currently we plan to re-open the camps during June as long as international travel has resumed by then, or as soon as flights are operating again if it is later than that, depending on the global success in bringing an end to the virus pandemic. We have been very grateful to all our customers holding bookings with us for dates further ahead in the future who have said that they still intend to come. And we are equally grateful to those who are booked to travel in the next few months, but who may be unable to do so if the Pandemic is not over soon, who have said that they will be prepared to postpone their bookings to come at a later date rather than to cancel their safaris. These future bookings will be vitally important in allowing tourism to recover and to provide the income needed to support our conservation mission so we must express our thanks to all who have said they will not cancel but instead would postpone. We hope too that more new customers may also decide to have a safari once the global crisis is over, to give tourism to the conservancies a further boost!
Right now, as it is the income from our safari tourism that pays for the land leases and the wages for all the community members working in the camps and conservancies, we need to find an alternative to tourism as a way of covering these costs over the next weeks and months while the current situation persists.
We must continue paying the rent for the land to the Maasai families and the wages to our conservancy and camp staff from the Maasai community so that all can continue to earn the monthly incomes that they depend on in their daily lives and do not become dependent on aid to survive .
As an alternative to income from tourism, we are now introducing an "Adopt-an-Acre" plan whereby contributors can adopt an acre of land in the conservancy for a year through a donation to our Wildlife Habitat Trust which will control a fund that helps to pay the staff wages until the camps re-open, as well as the land leases so that the families continue receiving the rents and the conservancies can continue to exist.
The Trust holds its funds separately from the Gamewatchers company accounts and is audited by a reputable firm of auditors in Nairobi, Grant Thornton Kenya, who will certify the Trust's income and expenditure so that contributors can be confident that all the money is going direct to the Maasai community.
If we are unable to continue paying the rents because all the current revenue from tourism has dried up, then the conservancies will be in danger of collapse as the local community will need to use their land to earn an income from other activities and the staff in the conservancies will lose their jobs.
Recently many of our customers have asked how they might help to provide some financial contributions so that the local people can continue receiving an income during these difficult times and we have now come up with our "Adopt-an-Acre" plan as a way of funding the payments to the community at a time when there is no adequate tourism income.
Gamewatchers Safaris pays directly for leasing 42,500 acres of land in conservancies in Amboseli and the Mara, providing an income of almost US$1.5 million to the communities in rents and wages. This means that in a year, every acre of conservancy land supported by us is creating a protected habitat for wildlife and also generates $35 going straight to the local people with $20 going to payments for land rents and $15 to wages of staff working in the conservancies.
We are asking our friends and customers to support our conservation mission and to help to keep the payments flowing into the communities by adopting one or more acres for a year through a donation of $35 per acre.
As mentioned we have 42,500 acres to be adopted!
To adopt 1 acre for a year is $35, while 5 acres for a year is $175, 10 acres is $350 or for 30 acres the donation is $1050, with $450 going to wages and $600 going to the families.
As a special incentive, anyone adopting 30 acres or more will receive a credit from Gamewatchers Safaris for the same amount donated, to be used for payment of a stay at any of the Porini Camps in 2021 and 2022. So a donation of US$1050 to adopt 30 acres will receive a travel credit worth US$1050 towards the cost of a safari in 2021 or 2022 staying at a Porini camp in any of the conservancies, while adopting 100 acres for US$3500 will receive a credit of US$3500.
If you would like to help, we have details of how to sign up here:
ADOPT-AN-ACRE WITH PORINI CAMPS
The Conservancies are teeming with wildlife at the moment and the Maasai communities with whom we work are enthusiastic and dedicated in their role as conservationists so your help will be invaluable and will go towards something worthwhile that can make a big difference to conservation and communities!
As soon as international tourism to Kenya resumes we will be delighted to welcome back visitors from overseas once more. Our team are looking forward to getting back to work again looking after our guests and taking them on safari. And the wildlife is flourishing - if you take a look at the latest images and videos on our Facebook page and our website you can see that right now in the conservancies it's like the Garden of Eden! We have plans to introduce more viewing hides, after the success of our first hide at Porini Rhino Camp and the platform by the waterhole at Porini Amboseli, and will be installing them in the Mara too, for even better wildlife viewing!
Stay safe and well and we hope to welcome you on safari soon!
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