A lion fitted with a tracking collar can tell researchers far more than where it was seen that morning. Its movements may reveal where a pride travels beyond the reserve and where livestock could be at risk. That information helps conservation teams work with herders to prevent attacks and protect lions from retaliation.
At Governors’ Camp Collection, conservation involves this kind of practical work, alongside forest protection, local education and changes to how our properties operate. Staying at Governors’ Camp or Il Moran in the Masai Mara, or Loldia House near Lake Naivasha, helps sustain the Collection’s involvement in these projects.
Our contributions take several forms, including funding, equipment, staff time and fundraising. Guests can also choose to give directly to particular programmes or arrange visits and talks that carry an additional donation.
Researchers follow lion prides over months and years to understand where they travel, how their populations change and where they encounter people and livestock.
The Mara Predator Conservation Programme combines this research with work in neighbouring communities. GPS collars provide movement data, while records of individual predators help researchers follow particular animals over time.
Governors’ Camp Collection has helped fund tracking collars, predator-proof livestock enclosures and a Lion Ambassador’s salary. Contributions also go towards herder training and anti-poisoning campaigns. Protecting livestock can reduce the likelihood of retaliatory killings, while responding to poisoning incidents can help protect predators and scavenging birds.
A presentation by a researcher gives guests the chance to ask about individual predators, tracking methods and efforts to prevent conflict with livestock owners. Talks must be arranged in advance and require an additional donation.
Beyond the Mara’s open grasslands, Loita Forest shelters elephants, colobus monkeys and birds among indigenous cedar and podocarpus trees. Its streams and water catchments also serve surrounding communities, making forest protection important well beyond its boundaries.
Land subdivision, farming, timber extraction and charcoal production have placed parts of the forest under pressure. When wooded plots are cleared, the remaining forest becomes fragmented, making it harder for wildlife to move between forest areas.
Governors’ Camp Collection works with the Mara Elephant Project to help protect Loita through community-led conservation. The Linda Msitu programme, whose name means “Protect the Forest”, works directly with landowners through voluntary agreements that help them retain forest cover while earning a livelihood.
Ranger teams patrol the forest to monitor illegal activity and help protect routes through the woodland. Their patrols complement the landowner agreements by addressing illegal clearance on the ground.
Elephants move across a wider landscape beyond the reserve, so protecting their habitat means working with the people who own and care for that land.
Elephants eat East African greenheart fruit, and the seeds germinate more readily after passing through their digestive systems.
Our grounds teams collect seeds from dung found along camp pathways and take them to the nursery. Once the seedlings are large enough, the team plants them in the camp grounds.
The wider planting programme responds to losses in riverine forest, including trees swept away as riverbanks erode during floods. Hundreds of indigenous trees have been planted in the camp grounds, with others donated to schools, villages and local projects. Species include sausage trees, wild figs, crotons and acacias.
Around Lake Naivasha, Governors’ Camp Collection also contributes to the Eburru Rafiki Forest Community Group’s planting work in Mau-Eburru Forest, a habitat for mountain bongo.
Guests are welcome to ask about taking part in tree planting during their stay and learning how the team collects seeds and raises seedlings.
Conservation also involves the water you drink, the electricity in your tent and what happens to the waste generated during your stay.
At our camps, reverse-osmosis filtration provides drinking water for refillable bottles, reducing the need for disposable plastic water bottles. Guests can bring their own reusable bottle or use the metal bottle provided on arrival.
Toiletries from Kenyan company Cinnabar Green come in refillable metal dispensers. Paper or metal alternatives have replaced plastic straws, and recyclable waste is separated for collection by recycling companies.
Vegetable gardens provide produce for guests and staff, reducing the need to bring herbs and salad ingredients from Nairobi. At Governors’ Camp and Il Moran, solar panels supply electricity and solar heaters heat water.
Guests take part in these measures throughout their stay, from refilling a bottle before a game drive to using toiletries from refillable dispensers.
School partnerships involve ongoing expenses as well as construction, from teacher salaries and learning materials to clean water and meals for pupils.
Working with community leaders, Governors’ Camp Collection has helped build classrooms, libraries, dormitories and clean-water systems at partner schools. The Collection also contributes to seven full-time teacher salaries, alongside lunch and porridge programmes at various schools.
Environmental education forms part of this work through Children in the Wilderness. Launched in Kenya in 2024, the programme began with three Eco-Clubs and 90 members, later expanding to nine clubs serving 270 students.
Weekly sessions cover trees, wildlife and ecosystems through discussions and practical activities. Teachers, community members and camp staff receive Eco-Mentor training to help lead these sessions, giving children regular opportunities to explore questions about the environment around them.
Through the Collection’s community and conservation projects, pupils can learn from guides and conservation partners as well as their teachers, connecting classroom activities with wildlife and habitats near their schools.
For some pupils, the cost of secondary school can interrupt their education after primary school. Fees, uniforms, meals, stationery and boarding expenses can exceed what their families are able to pay.
Governors’ Camp Collection’s Bursary Fund raises money for students from neighbouring communities facing these costs. Contributions are pooled to provide three-year bursaries covering Forms 2, 3 and 4, giving students funding for the full period.
The fund helps 27 students, with bursaries covering tuition, uniforms, meals and stationery, as well as boarding where applicable.
The bursaries run alongside the Collection’s Children in the Wilderness programme and help students continue their education, opening up opportunities for further study and employment.
Guests who wish to contribute can ask about donating to the pooled fund or sponsoring a student. Academic progress updates are available for sponsors, offering a way to remain involved after returning home.
Guided Community Giving helps guests contribute supplies or funding according to the needs of local schools and community projects.
The camp team can arrange to buy requested supplies locally on your behalf. This directs purchases to nearby businesses and allows schools to receive relevant materials. If you prefer to bring items from home, ask for the current needs list before packing.
A guided visit can provide an opportunity to meet teachers and learn about a school’s priorities. School visits take place during term time, excluding examination periods, so discuss your travel dates with the team in advance.
Ask the team about joining an Eco-Club activity or donating towards school meals and conservation education. Donations are additional to your stay.
Planning ahead gives the school time to prepare and helps fit the visit around its teaching schedule, as well as your game drives.
Monitoring eagle nests and tracking individual vultures helps researchers understand breeding success and bird movements across the Mara. The Mara Raptor Project also responds to injured or poisoned raptors.
The team has identified nearly 1,000 nesting sites and monitors approximately 400. Governors’ Camp Collection provides regular financial assistance for this work, and the project trains our guides in raptor identification and ecology.
Near Naivasha, the Collection also supplies around 400 kilograms of meat each month to rescued vultures cared for by the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust. Guests at Loldia House can arrange a visit to the Naivasha Raptor Centre by appointment, with an additional donation suggested.
The Collection has also helped raise funds for The Pangolin Project, donating a safari prize to a raffle that raised more than USD 21,000 in one week. Funds went towards conservation land leases in Nyekweri Forest, where giant pangolins face habitat loss.
Contact the camp team in advance to ask about meeting The Pangolin Project’s researchers or learning about their camera-trap work. Visits are subject to availability, and pangolin sightings cannot be guaranteed.
A stay with Governors’ Camp Collection helps sustain work that continues between guest visits, including predator monitoring, tree planting, school funding and the care of rescued birds.
During your trip, you can learn more about the projects that interest you, whether by asking about lion monitoring after a game drive, learning about indigenous trees or arranging a conservation talk.
When planning your stay, ask our team about available visits and presentations, any additional donations required and how these experiences can fit around your game drives or time at Lake Naivasha.
DONATION METHODS
