HIGHLIGHTS: * It forms a migration corridor for elephants and other game between Tsavo East and West
* Community based projects can be visited
* Beautiful landscape: woody rolling savannah and remnants of highland tropical rainforest
ABOUT THE SANCTUARY
The Lumo Community Wildlife Sanctuary covers an area of 46,000 hectares in the heart of the Tsavo Eco-system, in Taita Taveta district in southern Kenya. The sanctuary, wedged between Tsavo East and West National Parks and Taita Game Sanctuary, is a significant dispersal area for elephants and other species of animals and a migration corridor for the elephants.
LANDSCAPE
The land surrounding Lumo consists of woody rolling savannah and remnants of highland tropical rainforest. The soil is very fertile, and, with good rainfall, farming is productive.
GAME & BIRDS
The area has a rich variety of flora and fauna including elephant, buffalo, giraffe, aardvark and lion, and antelope such as the eland, oryx, dikdik and kongoni. It is also home to numerous birds. The habitat includes the Mwashoti, Mwakitau and Ndola Hills and Lion Rock, which is an important breeding site for lion.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS SANCTUARY? (From PACTWORLD ) Lumo aims to increase the area under wildlife conservation and maintain the migratory corridor and dispersal area for wildlife in the Tsavo Eco-system, to generate economic benefits for the local people through tourism based activities, and to reduce the human wildlife conflict.
Communities who depend on plant and wildlife resources for their livelihood often contribute to stresses on vulnerable natural resources. An approach known as community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) sees management of human and natural resources as part of the same equation: when communities are able to increase their incomes through improved agricultural practices and alternative economic activity, precious natural resources are sustained.
For the first time local ranchers and farmers living in the surrounding area are making choices about grazing their animals and cultivating their land taking into account impacts felt as far away as 40 miles. They understand that they are part of a larger ecological system and that the health of the system directly benefits their families and communities.
FORMATION & STAKEHOLDERS
The Lumo Community Wildlife Sanctuary was formed when three community-owned "ranches" in Taita, Lualenyi, Mramba and Oza, agreed to set aside 40,000 hectares of their land for wildlife conservation. This area was merged into a conservancy and legally registered as a trust in 2001. The sanctuary's 2,250 members benefit from it, ensuring that the wildlife corridor between Tsavo East and West is maintained.
However, following capacity building by a local partner of PACT , a Kenyan NGO working together with others for positive change, the East Africa Wildlife Society , a strengthened Lumo board and management team concluded that the focus of its strategic plan needed to extend beyond the boundaries of the sanctuary, especially given the fact that shareholders were not expected to benefit from the profitability of the sanctuary for several years.
Additionally, in recent years reduced water yields, due to deforestation and increased agriculture, has been drying up the rivers, reducing farm productivity in the lowlands, and increasing human-animal conflicts in the highlands as elephants move up the sides of the Taita Hills in search of water.
With better protection of the springs, more effective water catchment designs, and improved agricultural practices, the elephants in due course will return to their natural habitat in the lowlands and people will be able to make a better income from their lands.
As one proud farmer put it pointing proudly to his newly terraced farm, "This is Lumo. We're all a part of Lumo."
Continue reading about Lumo Wildlife Sanctuary and its community projects on PACTWORLD
