By David Western

The restoration of the Amboseli ecosystem following years of habitat loss and pasture degradation took a step forward in the last month with funding from the NAGA Foundation. Under the Global Environmental Facility grant awarded to KWS and partnering organizations to restore and sustain Amboseli’s biodiversity, funds are allocated for recovering woodland habitats in the park. The GEF grant has, however, been delayed, awaiting the appointment of a new director of KWS. The NAGA grant is timely, not only in setting up woodland restoration plots immediately, but also in expanding the restoration plan to include more woodland sites and address the far more serious problem of rangeland degradation across the ecosystem. The NAGA grant is issued to the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, supported by ACP, ACC and Kenya Wildlife Service.

The lack of red tape in the NAGA grant allowed us to move quickly in locating three woodlands restoration plots and setting up a number of grassland recovery sites around heavily degraded Maasai settlements.
Two woodland plots span the park boundary and include portions of the adjoining group ranch, where they will protect the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust’s Nongotiak Resource Centre from heavy grazing, and the Kitirua Hills spring from trampling by livestock. In barely a month the sites were selected, the fence designs drawn up, the tenders awarded on a competitive basis and construction underway. Two of the woodlands plots are now operational in time to benefit from the rains. In showing Carolyn Greene of African Conservation Centre-US the newly complete Kitirua recovery plot, she was fortunate to catch a bull elephant demonstrating his wariness of the fence (see African Conservation Centre-US)

The grassland restoration plots are based on the traditional Maasai olopololi, thorn exclosures located close to settlements to keep out adult stock and reserve a grass bank for calves in the dry season. ACC, working with Maasai women on Mbirikani Group Ranch near Amboseli at the height of the 2009, set up an olopololi that has since restored the grasslands, provided fodder for calves and grown enough seed to sell the surplus (http://www.accafrica.org/).
The olopololi program has the potential to grow rapidly as a Maasai home-grown solution to pasture conservation and management. A similar program has been adopted by the Il Polei and Munushoi communities in the Mukogodo region of Laikipia (http://www.accafrica.org/).

NAGA, in collaboration with AET, ACC and ACP, is also looking into arresting the heavy soil erosion on the Eremito Ridge where permanent settlements have degraded the grasslands and created heavy riling and gullying.

Restoring the wood habitats and grassland of the Amboseli ecosystem will take many years and call for a broad collaborative effort between the Maasai communities, conservation organizations, the Kajiado Council, safari operators, KWS and other government agencies dealing with livestock and water. On 11th November, the various parties met in Amboseli and agreed to set up a restoration group under the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust to design and oversee a restoration program for the ecosystem. The strongest support came from the Maasai representing the group ranches surrounding Amboseli and spanning the ecosystem.

By Victor N. Mose

ACP, ACC, and NAU launched a NASA-funded One Health survey using GEDI and local monitoring for ecosystem health.

By David Western, Victor N. Mose, David Maitumo, Immaculate Ombongi, Sakimba Kimiti, Winfridah Kemunto, Samuel Lekanaiya, Paul Kasaine and Sunte Kimiti

The heavy prolonged El Niño rains boosted pastures across the Amboseli ecosystem

By David Western, Immaculate Ombongi and Victor N. Mose

Our study traces the transition from traditional livestock practices based on seasonal migrations to permanent

Amboseli restoration program underway

Authored by : David Western
Posted on December 3, 2015

The restoration of the Amboseli ecosystem following years of habitat loss and pasture degradation took a step forward in the last month with funding from the NAGA Foundation. Under the Global Environmental Facility grant awarded to KWS and partnering organizations to restore and sustain Amboseli’s biodiversity, funds are allocated for recovering woodland habitats in the park. The GEF grant has, however, been delayed, awaiting the appointment of a new director of KWS. The NAGA grant is timely, not only in setting up woodland restoration plots immediately, but also in expanding the restoration plan to include more woodland sites and address the far more serious problem of rangeland degradation across the ecosystem. The NAGA grant is issued to the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, supported by ACP, ACC and Kenya Wildlife Service.

The lack of red tape in the NAGA grant allowed us to move quickly in locating three woodlands restoration plots and setting up a number of grassland recovery sites around heavily degraded Maasai settlements.
Two woodland plots span the park boundary and include portions of the adjoining group ranch, where they will protect the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust’s Nongotiak Resource Centre from heavy grazing, and the Kitirua Hills spring from trampling by livestock. In barely a month the sites were selected, the fence designs drawn up, the tenders awarded on a competitive basis and construction underway. Two of the woodlands plots are now operational in time to benefit from the rains. In showing Carolyn Greene of African Conservation Centre-US the newly complete Kitirua recovery plot, she was fortunate to catch a bull elephant demonstrating his wariness of the fence (see African Conservation Centre-US)

The grassland restoration plots are based on the traditional Maasai olopololi, thorn exclosures located close to settlements to keep out adult stock and reserve a grass bank for calves in the dry season. ACC, working with Maasai women on Mbirikani Group Ranch near Amboseli at the height of the 2009, set up an olopololi that has since restored the grasslands, provided fodder for calves and grown enough seed to sell the surplus (http://www.accafrica.org/).
The olopololi program has the potential to grow rapidly as a Maasai home-grown solution to pasture conservation and management. A similar program has been adopted by the Il Polei and Munushoi communities in the Mukogodo region of Laikipia (http://www.accafrica.org/).

NAGA, in collaboration with AET, ACC and ACP, is also looking into arresting the heavy soil erosion on the Eremito Ridge where permanent settlements have degraded the grasslands and created heavy riling and gullying.

Restoring the wood habitats and grassland of the Amboseli ecosystem will take many years and call for a broad collaborative effort between the Maasai communities, conservation organizations, the Kajiado Council, safari operators, KWS and other government agencies dealing with livestock and water. On 11th November, the various parties met in Amboseli and agreed to set up a restoration group under the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust to design and oversee a restoration program for the ecosystem. The strongest support came from the Maasai representing the group ranches surrounding Amboseli and spanning the ecosystem.

By David Western

The restoration of the Amboseli ecosystem following years of habitat loss and pasture degradation took a step forward in the last month with funding from the NAGA Foundation. Under the Global Environmental Facility grant awarded to KWS and partnering organizations to restore and sustain Amboseli’s biodiversity, funds are allocated for recovering woodland habitats in the park. The GEF grant has, however, been delayed, awaiting the appointment of a new director of KWS. The NAGA grant is timely, not only in setting up woodland restoration plots immediately, but also in expanding the restoration plan to include more woodland sites and address the far more serious problem of rangeland degradation across the ecosystem. The NAGA grant is issued to the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, supported by ACP, ACC and Kenya Wildlife Service.

The lack of red tape in the NAGA grant allowed us to move quickly in locating three woodlands restoration plots and setting up a number of grassland recovery sites around heavily degraded Maasai settlements.
Two woodland plots span the park boundary and include portions of the adjoining group ranch, where they will protect the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust’s Nongotiak Resource Centre from heavy grazing, and the Kitirua Hills spring from trampling by livestock. In barely a month the sites were selected, the fence designs drawn up, the tenders awarded on a competitive basis and construction underway. Two of the woodlands plots are now operational in time to benefit from the rains. In showing Carolyn Greene of African Conservation Centre-US the newly complete Kitirua recovery plot, she was fortunate to catch a bull elephant demonstrating his wariness of the fence (see African Conservation Centre-US)

The grassland restoration plots are based on the traditional Maasai olopololi, thorn exclosures located close to settlements to keep out adult stock and reserve a grass bank for calves in the dry season. ACC, working with Maasai women on Mbirikani Group Ranch near Amboseli at the height of the 2009, set up an olopololi that has since restored the grasslands, provided fodder for calves and grown enough seed to sell the surplus (http://www.accafrica.org/).
The olopololi program has the potential to grow rapidly as a Maasai home-grown solution to pasture conservation and management. A similar program has been adopted by the Il Polei and Munushoi communities in the Mukogodo region of Laikipia (http://www.accafrica.org/).

NAGA, in collaboration with AET, ACC and ACP, is also looking into arresting the heavy soil erosion on the Eremito Ridge where permanent settlements have degraded the grasslands and created heavy riling and gullying.

Restoring the wood habitats and grassland of the Amboseli ecosystem will take many years and call for a broad collaborative effort between the Maasai communities, conservation organizations, the Kajiado Council, safari operators, KWS and other government agencies dealing with livestock and water. On 11th November, the various parties met in Amboseli and agreed to set up a restoration group under the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust to design and oversee a restoration program for the ecosystem. The strongest support came from the Maasai representing the group ranches surrounding Amboseli and spanning the ecosystem.

By Victor N. Mose

ACP, ACC, and NAU launched a NASA-funded One Health survey using GEDI and local monitoring for ecosystem health.

By David Western, Victor N. Mose, David Maitumo, Immaculate Ombongi, Sakimba Kimiti, Winfridah Kemunto, Samuel Lekanaiya, Paul Kasaine and Sunte Kimiti

The heavy prolonged El Niño rains boosted pastures across the Amboseli ecosystem

By David Western, Immaculate Ombongi and Victor N. Mose

Our study traces the transition from traditional livestock practices based on seasonal migrations to permanent

Posted on December 3, 2015

By David Western

The restoration of the Amboseli ecosystem following years of habitat loss and pasture degradation took a step forward in the last month with funding from the NAGA Foundation. Under the Global Environmental Facility grant awarded to KWS and partnering organizations to restore and sustain Amboseli’s biodiversity, funds are allocated for recovering woodland habitats in the park. The GEF grant has, however, been delayed, awaiting the appointment of a new director of KWS. The NAGA grant is timely, not only in setting up woodland restoration plots immediately, but also in expanding the restoration plan to include more woodland sites and address the far more serious problem of rangeland degradation across the ecosystem. The NAGA grant is issued to the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, supported by ACP, ACC and Kenya Wildlife Service.

The lack of red tape in the NAGA grant allowed us to move quickly in locating three woodlands restoration plots and setting up a number of grassland recovery sites around heavily degraded Maasai settlements.
Two woodland plots span the park boundary and include portions of the adjoining group ranch, where they will protect the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust’s Nongotiak Resource Centre from heavy grazing, and the Kitirua Hills spring from trampling by livestock. In barely a month the sites were selected, the fence designs drawn up, the tenders awarded on a competitive basis and construction underway. Two of the woodlands plots are now operational in time to benefit from the rains. In showing Carolyn Greene of African Conservation Centre-US the newly complete Kitirua recovery plot, she was fortunate to catch a bull elephant demonstrating his wariness of the fence (see African Conservation Centre-US)

The grassland restoration plots are based on the traditional Maasai olopololi, thorn exclosures located close to settlements to keep out adult stock and reserve a grass bank for calves in the dry season. ACC, working with Maasai women on Mbirikani Group Ranch near Amboseli at the height of the 2009, set up an olopololi that has since restored the grasslands, provided fodder for calves and grown enough seed to sell the surplus (http://www.accafrica.org/).
The olopololi program has the potential to grow rapidly as a Maasai home-grown solution to pasture conservation and management. A similar program has been adopted by the Il Polei and Munushoi communities in the Mukogodo region of Laikipia (http://www.accafrica.org/).

NAGA, in collaboration with AET, ACC and ACP, is also looking into arresting the heavy soil erosion on the Eremito Ridge where permanent settlements have degraded the grasslands and created heavy riling and gullying.

Restoring the wood habitats and grassland of the Amboseli ecosystem will take many years and call for a broad collaborative effort between the Maasai communities, conservation organizations, the Kajiado Council, safari operators, KWS and other government agencies dealing with livestock and water. On 11th November, the various parties met in Amboseli and agreed to set up a restoration group under the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust to design and oversee a restoration program for the ecosystem. The strongest support came from the Maasai representing the group ranches surrounding Amboseli and spanning the ecosystem.

Recent Posts

By David Western, Victor N. Mose, David Maitumo, Immaculate Ombongi, Sakimba Kimiti, Winfridah Kemunto, Samuel Lekanaiya, Paul Kasaine and Sunte Kimiti

The outlook for livestock and wildlife in the short dry season normally stretching from January to the long rains

By Victor N. Mose

ACP, ACC, and NAU launched a NASA-funded One Health survey using GEDI and local monitoring for ecosystem health.

By David Western, Victor N. Mose, David Maitumo, Immaculate Ombongi, Sakimba Kimiti, Winfridah Kemunto, Samuel Lekanaiya, Paul Kasaine and Sunte Kimiti

The heavy prolonged El Niño rains boosted pastures across the Amboseli ecosystem

By David Western, Immaculate Ombongi and Victor N. Mose

Our study traces the transition from traditional livestock practices based on seasonal migrations to permanent

By Victor N. Mose, PhD, ACC/ACP, Nairobi, Kenya.

The MOSAIC field mission to the Amazon region, following a previous mission to East Africa

By Victor N. Mose, PhD, ACC/ACP, Nairobi, Kenya.

In a recent community meeting held at the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust offices in southern Kenya.

By Victor N. Mose and David Western

The Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) has conducted regular aerial sample counts of Amboseli and eastern Kajiado

By Victor N. Mose, David Western and the ACP Team

The Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) continued to monitor the conditions of the rangelands, livestock and wild

By Victor N. Mose

A notable discussion at the forum focused on disparities in data availability between the Global North and South.

By Victor N. Mose, David Western and the ACP Team

The effects of the good short rains have been felt in the Amboseli area.

Contact Us

Amboseli Conservation Program
P.O Box 15289-00509 or 62844-00200
Nairobi, Kenya.

Tel/Fax: +254 20 891360 / 891751
Email: acc@acc.or.ke