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Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Ol Pejeta

kenya

First Listed

2014

Area
364.0km2

Why is it Green Listed?

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is home to close to 130 rhino, the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, and contains hundreds of species of flora and fauna. The communities surrounding Ol Pejeta are home to over 50,000 people who are assisted by the conservancy for employment, trade and security. Since the formation of Sweetwaters in 1988, we have spent 26 years conserving the land, providing sanctuary to the wildlife, and supporting livelihoods in the 18 different communities in and around our 90,000 acres.

Ol Pejeta exists to conserve the environment and the wildlife and to equally benefit the people and communities that are an indivisible part of our efforts. We will continue to base our approaches on sound scientific research and understanding. We will continue to be a centre of learning for conservation and community development and welcome academics, researchers and volunteers from around the world to work in support of our vision.

Site Attributes

WDPA ID

Size
364.00km2

Designation(s)
Community Conservancy

IUCN Category
VI

Year Established
2004

Marine Protected Area
No

Governance Type
Individual landowners

Site Manager
Samuel Mutisya

Application
21.11.2014

EAGL Evaluation
20.9.18

GL Committee Submission
14.10.18

EAGL Chair
Nigel Hunter

ASI Reviewer
Etienne Kuzong

Site Summary

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is home to close to 130  rhino, the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, and  contains hundreds of species of flora and fauna. The  communities surrounding Ol Pejeta are home to over 50,000  people who are assisted by the conservancy for employment,  trade and security. Since the formation of the conservancy in  1988, considerable experience has accrued in conserving the  land, providing sanctuary to the wildlife, and supporting  livelihoods in the 18 different communities in and around our  35,000 hectares. Ol Pejeta exists to conserve the environment  and the wildlife and to equally benefit the people and  communities that are an indivisible part of our efforts. The site  bases its approaches on sound scientific research and  understanding. It strives to be a learning centre for conservation  and community development and welcome researchers and  volunteers from around the world to support this vision.

Major Site Values

The black rhino is most significant natural  value, followed by the ecosystem integrity of the site and the  species it contains, and the ecosystem services it offers –  principally water and pasture. A key cultural value is the  pastoralist right of grazing and stock management for the locally  and regionally valuable Bora cattle, which is integrated into  ecosystem management by the site staff and rangers.

Conservation Summary

  • Site visit report: no site visit undertaken for Green List re-evaluation
  • EAGL meeting minutes
  • EAGL consensus and vote: 6 out of 6, excluding two members with declare CoI.

EAGL statement:

  • As a result of good governance and effective planning and management of OPC, the trends of OPC values are globally good and stable (See Ref 106). The black rhino numbers on the conservancy have continued to increase thus sustaining the IUCN AfRSG Key 1 (>100 black rhinos) status amid increased national and regional rhino poaching incidents. Despite a decline of total wildlife numbers in the last one year, wildlife has continued to flourish over the past six years  without detrimental effect on the habitat that also supports livestock. Livestock continues to thrive on the Conservancy with revenue from livestock and agricultural  enterprises increasing over the last two years. Revenue from these enterprises combined with enhanced fundraising efforts has resulted in more support to the  community development programme as envisaged in the vision of the Conservancy. The impact of capacity building and awareness activities within the communities is  beginning to take effect as capable community representatives are gradually being elected in leadership positions of key project committees. The year 2017 was a  tough one for Laikipia; the people as well as the animals. The drought meant very poor grazing conditions and the resulting invasions of private land by pastoralist  communities, combined with political uncertainty, resulted in huge pressure on the land and its wildlife populations. As a result of this, we witnessed dramatically  increased use of the wildlife corridors across Ol Pejeta’s northern boundary, as large numbers of many different wildlife species sought refuge within the Conservancy.  EAGL’s chair statement on Ol Pejeta GL application: “We [Kenyan EAGL] agree that Ol Pejeta application meets the requirements and can go forward to the next step  of the Green List process which is the review by the independent reviewer.”

Reviewer statement:

  • The Reviewer hereby confirms that all relevant requirements of the IUCN GLPCA User Manual v1.1 (Aug 2018) have been fulfilled. Very good and solid evidence was presented by the Site to support each indicator. Each EAGL member was requested to review parts of the questionnaire (which contains the indicators and PA evidence) and clarifications were requested from the PA management. For the EAGL review process, each EAGL member was requested to  review parts of the questionnaire (based on EAGL member’s background and competence) and clarifications were requested from the PA management. The PA  considered all relevant questions from the different EAGL members and responded to them in a satisfactory manner. Stakeholder consultation around Green List  issues happened at various occasions throughout the process. The final voting took place during a face to face meeting organized by the EAGL on two occasions –  20th and 26th September 2018. Minutes of EAGL meetings have been reviewed and the Reviewer also watched the recording of the EAGL 26th September meeting  (as he could not attend) to ensure that the discussions were in line with the EAGL ToRs. Discussions were open and constructive. Two EAGL members declared  Conflicts of Interests with respect to the Ol Pejeta site. The two members were welcomed to participate in the discussions but were not part of the vote for this site

All EAGL members unanimously voted positively for the Ol Pejeta PA, after review of documents and responses from the PA management. The assessment process  has been properly conducted and all aspects of the User Manual have been followed, except that no site visit was conducted during this relisting phase. This is justified  as follows: A site visit was carried out during the pilot phase in 2014 and again in 2018. Both visits were conducted by IUCN staff. This is a deviation from the User  Manual, which asks for the visit to be carried out by the EAGL. However, given that not only one but two visits were carried out, recognising that the EAGL members  know the PA well, and acknowledging that IUCN and Assurance Provider communication with Green List participants did not specify that site visits carried out during  the pilot phase would have to be repeated by EAGL members if they were carried out by someone else, the Reviewer accepts this deviation as conforming to the  process rules. Following the outcome of the review and the process carried out by the EAGL in evaluating the PA, the Reviewer hereby confirms that all relevant  requirements of the IUCN Green List User Manual v1.1 (Aug 2018) have been fulfilled, as outlined above. The Reviewer, therefore, recommends that Ol Pejeta  Conservancy, Kenya (S-0206) be nominated for the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas

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