Pastoralist communities in Laikipia are turning to cultural tourism to generate revenue for community conservancies that have traditionally relied on donor funding to sustain their conservation work.
The communities are seeking to transform their culture, traditional way of life and landscapes into tourism experiences that can attract local and international visitors while creating an alternative source of income for conservation.
The move comes against the backdrop of financial vulnerability among community conservancies, with a recent assessment by the Laikipia Conservancies Association finding that more than 99 per cent were not financially sustainable.
LCA chief executive Peter Matunge said the dependence on donors left conservancies exposed to the risk of collapse if external funding dried up.
“If today we stopped donor funding, we were going to close all the nine community conservancies across the landscape,” Matunge warned.
The association has partnered with Steri Tours and Travel to train communities on how to develop, package and market tourism experiences based on their culture, wildlife and landscapes.
The initiative has so far enabled Shulmai and Naibunga Upper community conservancies to develop tourism products after months of training and co-creation involving tour operators, community members, guides and elders.
Matunge said communities had long wanted to participate in the tourism industry but lacked the skills and connections needed to turn their cultural and natural resources into marketable experiences.
“We made a deliberate move to partner with the communities to co-create a product that we can be able to sell,” he said.
The initiative will provide conservancies with resources to maintain their conservation programmes while giving communities a direct stake in tourism.
“This gives us confidence that what we are doing today is a step ahead in making these conservancies financially stable and viable so that they can continue conserving this beautiful landscape,” he said.
The programme followed a baseline survey conducted in 2023 to identify tourism opportunities within community-owned conservancies. It brought together private conservancies, government agencies and community members.
Steri Tours and Travel director Phoebe Maina said the survey found largely untapped tourism potential in the area, including culture, wildlife, history, stories, nature and landscapes.
She said the programme, which began in February, involved six training modules with the two conservancies, allowing communities to identify experiences that could be shared with visitors without abandoning their traditional way of life.
Communities were involved in identifying their own stories, landscapes, food and cultural practices and shaping them into experiences for travellers.
Maina said the initiative was designed to allow residents to continue with their normal way of life while sharing it with visitors seeking experiences beyond traditional wildlife safaris.
“The most exciting thing is the community was very receptive because they saw an opportunity to earn a living through tourism,” she said.
At Naibunga Upper, the initiative is expected to benefit about 3,000 registered community members, with the conservancy developing facilities and experiences that can generate revenue to support its operations.
Naibunga Upper Conservancy manager Peter Kirwa said the community had previously depended on donors, a model he described as unreliable for sustaining long-term conservation programmes.
“We basically started this facility to ensure the community gets a reliable source of revenue to ensure that operations are maintained,” Kirwa said.
Visitors will be offered three main experiences centred on wildlife, culture and the landscape. Cultural activities will include livestock practices, traditional weddings, food preparation and other aspects of Maasai culture.
Kirwa said the experiences will allow visitors to interact with the community and learn about traditional practices that are rarely included in conventional wildlife safaris.
“We will ask the guests to come and visit Naibunga and have that experience, a rich one that they will never forget,” he said.
The initiative also seeks to ensure that more tourism revenue reaches the communities that manage and protect the conservancies.
The launch of the tourism products brought together 11 travel agents who are expected to market the destinations to local and international visitors.
The initiative is also expected to create opportunities for women, particularly through the sale of beadwork and other cultural artefacts of the Maasai community.
For the communities, the approach offers a chance to diversify incomes as pastoral livelihoods come under economic and environmental pressure, while preserving the wildlife and landscapes that underpin Laikipia’s tourism potential.
