OUR STORY
Conserving the Milgis Ecosystem
Northern Kenya
The trust was founded in 2004 in order to protect the wildlife, habitat and pastoral people’s way of life, in this stunning and very remote part of Northern Kenya. Our mandate is to pave the way for a fully restored ecosystem, shared by people and wildlife alike. Poaching, deforestation and land degradation are the main challenges facing flora and fauna in the area. We believe that wildlife and pastoral peoples can live peacefully together without borders, as they have done for centuries. The majority of wildlife in the world is living behind fences - it is our priority to ensure that this does not happen in our area. Experience has taught us that the most effective way to conserve is by dealing directly with communities. Their future relies on conserving this area, and we incentivise the conservation in the form of education, health, water, security and veterinary projects implemented by the trust. These projects are mostly a direct result of ecotourism giving the wildlife a high value in the eyes of the communities! However, you cannot implement infrastructure without considering the demographics and sustainable capacities of an area. We use several strategies to ensure that our community projects promote sustainable development.
Conservation
Each community elects their scouts and lkiramats. (caretakers) These men and women are in charge of conservation for that area, additionally they must act as liaison between the trust and community.
Collectively, they are responsible for
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Anti-poaching
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Mitigating Human-wildlife conflict
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Animal rescues
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General health of Milgis ecosystem
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Community relations
Education
The Milgis trust aims to provide a well-rounded education
that promotes children to be ambassadors of the environment.
Keystones in our education programme include:
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We have built an eco-school at primary level, which is now independently run by the community
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We have built and continue to maintain 4 nursery schools & support several others
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We have a mobile film unit (eco-screen), showing conservation concepts through visual stimuli.
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Student sponsorship program - over 92 students seen through secondary and some to university and college education.
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Scouts visiting schools in their area to address students on conservation & sustainability.
Sustainable land use
Loss of habitat contributes immensely to decline in wildlife populations and biodiversity. By preventing the following we aim to improve productivity and regeneration of habitat:
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Wildfires
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Overgrazing
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Deforestation
We are implementing large scale bunds and swales to promote the rehabilitation of degraded soils
Veterinary
The entire existence of Samburu people revolves around their domestic animals. They face great challenges in this arid environment – our veterinary programme aims to improve the quality of animal health through:
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Rabies inoculations, de-worming and neutering of dogs.
Water
If a community proves to be environmentally responsible, and welcomes local flora and fauna, then it is considered for a water project.
In 13 different locations throughout the district we produce approximately 43 million litres of clean water annually. This strategy aims to relieve Human-wildlife conflict at watering holes.
Dam Unit
Pan-dams are built by a JCB tractor and harvest rainwater for livestock and wildlife.
To date 72 Pan-dams have been made and continue to be maintained by our team.
Healthcare
Access to healthcare has been very limited in the area, therefore we help out where we can. Our main focus areas are:
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Family Planning
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Facilitate eye missions dealing with cataracts & trachoma
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Emergency medivacs and treatment