In the heart of the Maasai Mara, where some of Africa’s best wildlife roams freely, a group of dedicated Kenyans are working hand in hand with the Maasai community to achieve an ambitious goal: developing a convalescent tourism industry that will benefit the local community as well as preserve the environment and keep a low carbon footprint.
Together with the Maasai inhabitants, these Kenyans have established the Olare Orok Conservancy (OOC), a territory that is larger than Manhattan and slightly smaller than central London. ‘Here, humans and animals coexist’, Maasai conservationist Dickson Kaelo says.
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A general view of Film Safari Camp
Photos by Tony Karumba |
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Each tourist visiting one of the four eco-lodges can enjoy an unforgettable safari experience and be sure to preserve an increasingly endangered ecosystem. Film Safaris is one of these pioneering camps and opened in January 2008. Nestled in a riverside thicket overlooking a majestic plain, the lodge’s owners and designers spared no effort to adopt the greenest approaches to energy, water, waste, transport, and building material.
Energy:
The lodge’s six-tent twelve-bed set-up runs on a battery system, plugged three hours a day into a diesel generator. At the inception, solar panels were considered but it turned out that 38 of them would have been needed. Two problems arose: high cost and poor aesthetics. The owners are now looking into alternatives, such as fitting more discreet solar “mats” directly over the tenting.
The energy produced by the generator and stored by the batteries is used for lighting and kitchen fridges. All the camp is equipped with energy-saving light bulbs.
Water heating relies on wood brought in by trucks from a plantation. A seven ton shipment lasts up to 4 months, so transport related emissions remain low.
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One of the eco-friendly tents |
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Water:
Water is pumped from a nearby well, and goes through a three-stage filtering system.
But high sulfur levels mean bottled water is used for drinking.
Sheets and towels are dry-cleaned in Nairobi to avoid spilling highly abrasive soap water into the river. Laundry is sent out in supply vans visiting the camp regularly
Building material and technology:
Not a single tree was cut down on the lodge site, and not an ounce of cement went into construction. Some minor pruning was necessary to put up the tents. To limit their environmental impact, they were erected on platforms sustained by a special structure: upside down tripods resting on a single big river stone in the ground. No indigenous wood was used in the platforms, only plantation wood. The rest of the material is canvas. The result is a far cry from the mass-tourism steel and cement structures that have scarred the nearby national reserve over the years and the camp can be dismantled without leaving any negative impact on the environment.
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Most of the staff at the eco-lodge are trained at the community owned Guiding School |
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Waste:
All sewage goes into septic tanks in accordance with National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) regulations. As for soap water from the rooms, it is used to water plants since the soaps provided to guests are environmentally-friendly.
Water from the kitchen goes into a fat extractor which skims fat and rejects clean water in a salt pit. Biodegradable waste is disposed in a covered pit and plastic waste is compressed and sent back to Nairobi.
Transport:
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Students are taught to be conservationists & nurtured to be mindful of eco-friendly ideas |
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To keep transport emissions low in the conservancy, each camp is allowed 4 safari vehicles and minibuses are forbidden. Guests driving into the area with their cars are asked to park them at the camp and use local vehicles for game drives.
The only emissions at Film Safaris camp are caused by fire wood, the generator, and cars. But the camp is working on joining the Kenyan association monitoring eco-tourism and will start offsetting once the GHG inventory is completed.
For more details contact
Rob O’Meara or
Warren Samuels