Adopt-an-Acre
With the total closure of safari tourism for months recently as a result of the global Coronavirus Pandemic there is growing concern about the welfare of those Maasai communities who depend on the income from tourism in the conservancies. There are also fears that the future of these important areas of protected wildlife habitat may be threatened with serious consequences for the teeming wildlife species that have made them their home.
Right now, as it is the income from our safari tourism that pays for the land leases and the wages for all the community members working in the camps and conservancies where Gamewatchers Safaris is involved, we need to find an alternative to tourism as a way of covering these costs over the next weeks and months while the current situation persists.
Through the “Adopt-an-Acre” plan, contributors can adopt an acre of land in the conservancies for a year with a donation to the Wildlife Habitat Trust which has been set up as a fund to help to pay the staff wages until the camps re-open, as well as the land leases so that the Maasai families continue receiving the rents and the conservancies can continue to exist. The Trust is audited by a reputable firm of auditors in Nairobi, Grant Thornton Kenya, so that contributors can be confident that all the money is going direct to the Maasai community.
We are asking our friends and customers to support our conservation mission and to help to keep the payments flowing into the communities by adopting one or more acres for a year through a donation of US$35 per acre.
We have 42,500 acres to be adopted!
With the 42,500 acres which we lease providing an income of almost US$1.5 million to the community, this means that in a year, every acre of conservancy land supported by us is creating a protected habitat for wildlife and also generates US$35 going straight to the local people with US$20 going to payments for land rents and US$15 to wages. We have 42,500 acres to be adopted!
- To adopt 1 acre for a year requires a donation of US$35 of which US$15 goes to conservancy and camp staff wages and US$20 goes to the families.
- To adopt 5 acres with a donation of US$175, means US$75 going towards the wages of the 247 Maasai staff and US$100 going towards rent payments to hundreds of families.
- To adopt 30 acres the donation is US$1050, with US$450 going to wages and US$600 going to the families.
As a special incentive, anyone adopting 30 acres or more will receive a credit from Gamewatchers Safaris for the same amount donated, to be used for payment of a stay at any of the Porini Camps in 2021 or 2022. So, for example, a donation of US$1050 to adopt 30 acres will receive a travel credit worth US$1050.