BUILDING COMMUNITY AWARENESS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF LAND RESTORATION IN KUKU GROUP RANCH (KGR)

The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT) is taking the initiative on restoration by providing the Maasai community of Kuku Group Ranch with sustainable solutions to help  restore degraded lands for the wellbeing of current and future generations.

Before establishing each restoration project, MWCT conducts a series of meetings, workshops and horizontal learning trips with local group ranch leaders to address the issue of land degradation and explore possible interventions. Thereafter, the information is shared with the wider community through training and community outreaches. Alongside this, MWCT works with community members to map out the locations of degraded areas in the community. 

Following this process, MWCT collaborates with other organizations such as Justdiggit and the local Maasai people to establish conservation-oriented sustainable interventions, such as constructing water bunds and establishing grass seed banks.

Once these projects are established, they act as demonstration sites for local and neighboring communities to visit in order to learn how to replicate the interventions in their own areas. 

The success of the restoration projects, and the direct benefits to the community – such as increased employment – have made it easy to conduct successful community outreaches raising awareness on the importance of land restoration. MWCT has also supported the community to establish grazing committees, which govern the use of restored rangelands. Through the local grazing committees, we can address the issue of overgrazing and facilitate rotational grazing on the restored sites to improve livestock husbandry.

We believe that the future of restoration in Kuku Group Ranch lies with the community’s young people, so we target them through school outreaches and inform them about the importance of restoration and how to restore the land. The women who run the Moilo Grass Seedbank, the first of its kind in the community, also intend to involve young people in their project through the provision of trees from the grass seed bank tree nursery, which they intend to establish using some of the funds provided by GLF.

With the support of GLF, the Moilo Grass Seedbank women will be able to do more community training on how to establish grass seed banks, and on the opportunities and benefits associated with land restoration.