Savannah Discovery Kenya: Doing Well to Do Good

Savannah Discovery Kenya (SDK) is an ecotourism company that operates four camps in two of Kenya's wildlife conservancies. Their model is based on delivering top-notch safari experiences while leaving a positive footprint in the places where they operate. Through their long-term partnership with the Maasai people, Savannah Discovery seeks to bring together community empowerment and nature conservation. At the base of SDK's concept lies the fundamental belief that the protection of the Mara Ecosystem can only succeed if the local communities are given fair substitutions to alternatives such as agriculture. The land known as Ol Kinyei Conservancy -where SDK operates- consists of 530 individual land plots, each entitled to a specific Maasai family. Every month, Savannah Discovery, together with their four tourism partners, pay a set lease fee to the landowners. Savannah Discovery also offers training schemes to promote local capacity and career opportunities for local people. Together with their Maasai partners, they have institutionalized a bottom-up management culture that fosters local ownership and a sense of responsibility. More than 95% of their employees are local Maasai, most of who have been trained by them. SDK had just renegotiated a 25-year lease renewal with the landowners when the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the tourism sector was among the worst hit. The collapse of the tourism-based revenue structure put thirty years of effort and investment in community-based conservation at risk. With tourism revenue nearly non-existent, most of the employees at tourism facilities across the Mara were furloughed, and lease payments to over 14,528 landowners were at risk of being reduced if not eliminated completely. Due to the significant loss of conservancy revenues, local communities considered increasing the size of their cattle herds, fencing land for grazing, converting land to agriculture or, in the worst-case scenario, selling their parcels. With rangers not working and local community members seeking alternative livelihoods, the threats of habitat conversion, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and general community resentment towards wildlife increased. SDK?s response to the crisis included a proposal made to WSV alongside the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA) for an emergency COVID fund, which would enable basic lease payments to be continued. In August 2020, SDK and its peers reopened their doors seeking to attract domestic tourism for the first time. Prices had to be cut radically, but the plan proved effective to maintain at least some modest cash flow during these difficult months.