Projects
Project Taita – The race to save almost 100,000 acres of African bushland.
In Early 2009 we visited Kenya with Will Travers, CEO of Born Free Foundation (www.bornfree.org.uk) to look at the desperate situation facing some of the world’s most vulnerable and endangered animals. We visited the areas around Tsavo National Park in South East Kenya where human/wildlife conflict and poaching are a real problem, to see if there was anything we could do to support the work being carried out by Born Free and other wildlife charities.
Tsavo East and West together form the largest National Park in Kenya and one of the biggest National Parks in the world and are regarded as an area of global importance. The parks have a rich diversification of wildlife and although patrolled by the Kenya Wildlife Service, still face the threat of illegal poaching and habitat destruction. In the land between the two parks, which forms an important migratory corridor for elephants and is home to big cats and other wide-ranging species, the situation is desperate. This area, known as the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor, is outside the relative safety of the national parks and has to face the daily onslaught of habitat destruction and extremely brutal poaching. Without some form of protection and regular patrolling, Elephants, Lions, Leopard and Cheetah, in fact any animals who dare to venture between the two parks, are lucky to survive. Our trip was evidence of that and the reason we have set up our first project - Project Taita.
Having spent 10 days in and around Tsavo, looking at how we can help protect and preserve the area, the urgency to move quickly became paramount. We saw at first hand, small groups of elephants that have settled on Taita, moving freely through the area between the two parks, following the same paths they have used for many years. We also saw a number of young bull elephants all with impressive tusks and couldn't help wondering just how long they would survive in this dangerous, unprotected wilderness. Nothing prepares you for your first encounter with a fully grown elephant in the wild and those memories stay with you forever. Returning to the UK, with a promise to do all we could to help protect as much of the area as possible we received the most devastating news. Four days after we left Tsavo, three elephants had been found slaughtered, butchered for their ivory and news had just come in that a fourth elephant had been seen about a mile from where we camped, alive but trapped in a crude and excruciatingly painful snare. The thought that these poor animals may have been the same individuals we observed for hours a few days earlier, harmlessly going about their daily routine, was deeply upsetting. The race was now on to establish a presence in the area as quickly as possible, to prevent any further poaching. The biggest deterrent is to have teams of game rangers patrolling the area day and night and so after a few frantic telephone calls and several rushed meetings, Project Taita was born.
We now need to raise £500k to save almost 100,000 acres of African bush land, rich in wildlife, but on the brink of environmental collapse. The Taita Conservancy is being set up on critically important lands between Tsavo East and West. This amazing land is an important home to Elephants, Big Cats, the endangered Grevys Zebra, plus hundreds of bird species. Without our intervention and without your help, the entire ecosystem would fall apart. Local communities are cutting down trees for illegal charcoal burning at an alarming rate, 
animals are being driven away and those that remain face the poachers. The area is littered with crude snares and many animals suffer a horrific, painful death. This is an area of global importance, an area of outstanding beauty that should be teeming with wildlife. With your help we can bring it back to life. Please sponsor a piece of land and help save this incredible place. A £10 sponsorship will protect an acre of land for a whole year. Choose your own piece of land and become a member of this amazing project.
For this and other ways to support our cause, please click here
Taita Conservancy is located in South East Kenya, approximately 100km from Mombasa
