May 2006 was a landmark date for conservation in the Masai Mara. A deal was brokered with 277 Maasai land-owners which resulted in the formation of Olare Motorogi Conservancy, bordering the Masai Mara Game Reserve. Olare Motorogi has become the template for Mara community wildlife conservancies and is set to become the blue-print for the sustainability of the greater Masai Mara eco-system. The conservancy offers pleasant and exclusive viewing of game in a pristine environment, with a rich and diverse wildlife population rarely found anywhere else on the African savannah.

The pioneering Olare Motorogi Conservancy offers one of the highest quality, lowest traffic safari experiences in the region. Tourism in the Conservancy is limited to a maximum of 94 beds equating to a ratio of one tent to 700 acres – a formula which maximizes the client wilderness experience and minimizes the environmental impact of tourism.

Built upon a partnership with local Maasai landowners, Olare Motorogi management has worked with the local people who agreed to move their homes and only allow carefully managed cattle grazing, leaving the wildlife completely unimpeded. As a result, the wildlife population and diversity have greatly increased since the establishment of the conservancy and there are good populations of both predators and herbivores, including the Mara’s famous big cats and many elephants. Rhino and wild dog have also been sighted, and it could become a very viable habitat for these two highly endangered species, given the right sort of protection through sensitive tourism development. The area encompassed within the Olare Motorogi Conservancy is a strategic buffer zone for the Masai Mara National Reserve and the wildlife migration corridors, and will be secured from incompatible land usage, such as wheat farming, charcoal production and subsistence agriculture, which together displace wildlife habitats at an alarming rate.