kenya
Left: A Samburu warrior looks out across the eastern scarp of the Great Rift Valley in northern Kenya Previous pages: An adult male lion in Maasai Mara National Reserve
Kenya has been one of Africa’ s top destinations since Arab traders began travelling to the country in the first century, leaving their legacy on the Swahili-imbued culture of the coast. Modern tourism boomed from the 1980s and today’ s visitors come as much for iconic wildlife and wild places as they do for the sparkling Indian Ocean.
Kenya’ s mosaic of diverse habitats draws myriad species, including the famous Big Five: elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros. The country’ s national parks showcase dramatic landscapes, from the craggy peaks of Mount Kenya— Africa’ s second-highest mountain— to the sweeping savannahs of the Maasai Mara, home to one of the world’ s most spectacular natural phenomena: the Great Wildebeest Migration.
Much of Kenya’ s wildlife lives outside the unfenced national parks, however, making it vulnerable to poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Local communities are key to conservation here, among them the renowned red-robed Maasai pastoralists who are as much a part of the landscape as the lions and elephants that share their land.
Since the 1970s, some 200 conservancies have been set up across the country. These are areas of land— sometimes private ranches, sometimes parcels of individually or communally owned pastures— joined together to help protect
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