Women in the Lewa Micro Credit Programme in their farms.
Ness Watts/Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
Community-focused Conservation Approach
We work with local communities to make our conservation efforts inclusive, participatory and beneficial to their livelihoods. This is in recognition that conservation can only be successful and sustainable if there is participation from the local people, where their views and thoughts are integrated into the planning and execution process.
Each community surrounding Lewa has a development committee that is linked to the community development programme here on Lewa. Through these committees, we are able to establish what the communities' greatest needs are, how we can help to best address them, and how conservation can generally uplift their livelihoods. As a result, we continue to enjoy a close working relationship with our neighbours, in recognition that the future for both people and wildlife in this ecosystem are intertwined.
Regular and prompt communications between Lewa and the neighbouring communities, including an open door policy.
Establishment of grass root based platforms for community engagement and participation.
Planning - alignment of communities' needs to organisational goals through consultations via the development committees and other channels.
Recognition of the importance of community engagement and participation in Lewa's strategies and philosophy.
Community involvement, beyond tokenism, remains critical in conservation to ensure sustainability and longterm viability of the efforts.
Shared responsibility from project planning, implementation and operations, which creates a sense of ownership amongst the communities, which eliminates the ‘dependency syndrome.’
The importance of involving other development partners in the community development initiatives.
It is important to create good governance structures among the development committees and ensure representation from both genders, and the various age structures. This ensures that all demographics are represented.
Prioritisation of the communities' needs, and focus on what affects most members of the society.
The value of not aligning to any political party, and creating a working relationship with any government that is in power.