Interview with Paul Leringato: Head of Community Programs for Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Written by David Rosberg
Paul is in charge of projects that go on outside of Ol Pejeta Conservancy to support the neighbouring communities. His office is within the grounds of the conservancy situated in a particularly arid and desolate site. We travelled for 30 minutes through open landscape to arrive at his office and he generously gave us a thorough presentation of the history of the conservancy and of its current community projects.
“Ol Pejeta Conservancy covers an area of 90,000 acres and has existed for 40 years. The communities surrounding the conservancy are diverse in tribal identity. The communities in the south are mostly Kikuyu and are farmers and in the north there is a mixture of cultures including Turkana, Samburu, Borano, and Masai. The communities in the north depend mostly on livestock. The community outreach department of Ol Pejeta started in 2004 with Paul as the Head Officer with the intention to better the relations between Ol Pejeta and the communities, and support the development of the communities.”
“Prior to 2004 there was a history of hostility and tension between neighbouring communities and Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The farmers were often angry towards Ol Pejeta when wildlife would wander into their fields and eat and destroy their crops which they depended on to feed their families. Their neighbours, Ol Pejeta wanted to conserve the animals that were, at times, threatening their survival and livelihood. In retaliation and for survival purposes some neighbours poached the wildlife for food and survival. Ol Pejeta and its neighbouring communities had absolutely conflicting interests. If this essential conflict was not resolved their would be no betterment of relations between Ol Pejeta and its neighbours. Ol Pejeta recognized that if it were to survive as a conservancy then it had to do something. In 2004 they built an electric fence around its perimeter and this has helped enormously to stop the conflict. Wild life cannot go out the south side and in the north there are corridors where wildlife can migrate through without disturbing the livelihoods of the livestock herders. A few clever elephants have managed to escape through the electric fence but the communities know to contact the conservancy when this happens for the elephant to be retrieved.”
“After the building of the fence we did an analysis of the population of the communities, the quality of health care, the education and social services available to people, and the effectiveness of agricultural practices. We did this to get a baseline of what is so. We began to develop strategies and projects that would help develop the community’s quality of life.”
“In the area of education we now support 50 schools – primary to secondary in various ways. We work with approximately 20 schools on an ongoing basis. We build classrooms, renovate and maintain school property, provide books and computers. In Kenya primary school is free and paid for by the government. Secondary school has to be paid for by the parents and poor people are therefore excluded. For this reason Ol Pejeta sponsors the tuition of 60 full time secondary students and some part time students. Two local schools have been paired with 2 Canadian schools as cultural exchange programs. A Canadian NGO called “Teachers Without Borders” comes to some of our schools to give education workshops to our teachers.”
“We found that some community members have to walk 10 -20 km for basic medical care. We are trying to fill in the gaps where there are no medical facilities. To date we have built two facilities and the government then provides the medical staff and medicine. They treat basic cases and refer more serious conditions to the Nanyuki hospital.”
“We employ two agriculture advisors to teach farmers and families in techniques and methods that optimize crop growth. There are approximately 500 farmers in the south. Typically each family will have 3 acres; 1 acre for the homestead, 1 acre for crops, and one acre for livestock. With the participation of 20 farmers a model Conservation Agriculture farm has been established that practices and compares traditional farming techniques and conservation agriculture. Here community members can see for themselves how certain growing methods can improve their yield, the quality of crops, the improvement of the soil, and conservation of water.”
“Ol Pejeta owns some cattle and we do this to address how to maximize the usage of our land for conservation as well as income. We are integrating wildlife conservation, tourism, and livestock. During drought we allow community with livestock from the north to graze on our land.”
“Ol Pejeta has road making equipment. We build roads from the main road to villages, to farms, to schools. Building a 5km road can be very meaningful to people, for example linking farmers to the main road to get to market.”
“The income that is generated from the tourism of the conservancy and the chimpanzee sanctuary supports the wages of the staff of Ol Pejeta. 100% of the donor money goes to the community development projects. We have individual donors and also Loews conservancy contributes to us.”
“Our goal is to create a greater linkage between ourselves and the community as we know this is essential to the success of the conservancy. We want the community to feel a part of the Ol Pejeta Community.”
