WHAT WE DO
At the Elephant Watch Portfolio, we try to use eco-tourism to lift up local populations by improving livelihoods and reinforcing the conservation ethic of traditional cultures to protect and preserve wild areas and animals. We have a deeply green eco-philosophy that informs our work, striving at every turn to minimize our footprint and do no harm. We believe that development is welcome, but not at the automatic expense of the ancient ways of the nomadic people whose understanding of the wild environment is second to none. The continued well-being of our planet, its mountains, streams, savannahs, swamps, forests, deserts and seas are part of our responsibility as decent beings to protect for the benefit of our children and children’s children and all other creatures on it, who we believe have an intrinsic right to exist with or without man. We aim to bring visitors to these wild places to encourage connections between cultures from all corners of the planet, to reconnect people to the natural world, and to fan the flames of compassion.
SUSTAINABILITY
Responsible tourism is a fashionable phrase, but we have been pioneering it as a business model for over two decades now. Key aspects are providing local employment, education, encouraging waste-free living, and approaching animals and the environment with compassion and respect.
CONSERVATION
We work closely with Save the Elephants (STE), a leading conservation charity based in Samburu, to protect elephants and fight against poachers. STE’s Elephant Crisis Fund gets 100% of donations to the worst hit areas across Africa to stop the killing, stop the trafficking of ivory and end demand.
EDUCATION
Thanks to the Elephant Watch Scholarship Fund, close to 100 bright but impoverished children from the Samburu area have gone on to secondary or tertiary education. We believe passionately that education is the first step on the ladder to climb out of poverty.
HEALTHCARE
Forty years ago, Oria’s father donated farmland and buildings to open a medical centre near Olerai in Naivasha. Today, the clinic is thriving and treats more than 2,000 people a week, with about 8,000 women in total enrolled in the family planning and child spacing programme.
LATEST FROM OUR BLOG
My Favourite Elephants
Nick Nichols – Samburu’s 1000 strong elephants roam freely throughout the Northern Rangelands The Save the Elephants team in Samburu can individually recognise about 1000 elephants, and have been monitoring them closely since 1997. For ease of reference each family is...
An Internship at Elephant Watch Camp
We went into a state of frenzy. We threw down utensils we were clutching. Paint went splattering; crayons were thrown across the tent, which was left wide open as an open invitation to inquisitive monkeys, who thankfully did not notice our absence. Shoes were grabbed...
Our Wild Life in Samburu
© Frank Pope. Rommel in full musth. The more you watch elephants, the more you slip into their mind-scape and begin to see the world through their eyes. Most of what I know about them I learnt by osmosis growing up amongst them while my parents did their research in...
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT US
Your support is vital in helping us to carry on all activities related to the four areas highlighted above that form the core and are the ethos of our portfolio. Get in touch with us through our form below to help us further our work, even if it’s from afar.