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Our Mission
Restoring landscapes. Connecting habitats. Strengthening communities.
To create a future where thriving ecosystems and resilient communities exist alongside one another — making conservation a lasting and valuable choice for the people who share their land with wildlife.
Futures in the Wild works alongside communities, landowners and conservation partners to protect biodiversity, restore degraded landscapes and safeguard the habitats and migration corridors that connect ecosystems.
Rooted in Kenya's northern Maasai Mara, our work extends beyond individual conservancies and across different landscapes. We bring together community-led conservation, sustainable land management, education, healthcare and economic opportunity to support a future in which people and nature can thrive together.
At the heart of our approach is a simple belief: conservation must work for the people who live alongside wildlife. By supporting locally led initiatives, strengthening livelihoods and developing sustainable ways to finance conservation, we are helping demonstrate that protecting nature can be both environmentally and economically valuable.
Through our partnerships with Enonkishu, Mbokishi, Lemek and Ol Chorro conservancies, the Mara Training Centre and conservation organisations working across Kenya, we are building on practical experience to support restoration and conservation beyond the Mara.
Our ambition is to help develop and share approaches that can be adapted and replicated across other landscapes, protecting biodiversity and securing connected habitats for generations to come.
Our Purpose
Protecting nature. Creating opportunity. Building a future together.
Across Kenya and East Africa, natural ecosystems are under increasing pressure. Land fragmentation, fencing, habitat degradation and climate change threaten biodiversity, disrupt wildlife migration corridors and place growing demands on the communities who depend on these landscapes.
Too often, conservation and economic development are seen as competing priorities. Communities are asked to protect wildlife while facing the immediate pressures of securing livelihoods, managing livestock and supporting their families.
We believe there is another way.
Our purpose is to help make conservation a practical, economically viable and lasting choice for landowners and communities, while restoring the health and connectivity of the natural environment.
We work towards this through four connected areas:
Conservation & Landscape Restoration
Supporting community-led conservancies, restoring degraded rangelands, improving holistic grazing practices and protecting wildlife habitats and migration corridors. From established conservation landscapes in the northern Mara to the proposed new conservancy at Elengata Enterit, we aim to support conservation across larger, connected ecosystems.
Training & Knowledge Sharing
Through the Mara Training Centre, we help share practical experience in sustainable rangeland management, holistic grazing and ecosystem restoration with landowners, communities and conservation practitioners from across Kenya and beyond.
By sharing knowledge and strengthening local capacity, approaches developed in one landscape can inform restoration in many others.
Women, Enterprise & Livelihoods
Through Women in the Wild, entrepreneurship programmes and Trees in the Wild, we support women to develop skills, establish enterprises and earn independent incomes.
Our work reaches communities in the Mara and Trans Mara, including initiatives that are not directly linked to conservation but contribute to stronger, more resilient communities.
Education, Health & Community Wellbeing
Through Libraries for Life, school programmes and healthcare partnerships, we support access to education, essential services and opportunities for young people and families.
We believe that investing in people is fundamental to building strong communities and a better future.
Our Vision
We envision a future where Africa's natural landscapes remain connected, wildlife populations can thrive, and communities have the opportunity and resources to shape their own futures.
A future where degraded ecosystems are restored, wildlife corridors remain open, and conservation becomes a source of opportunity rather than a competing demand on the land.
Through collaboration, practical experience and long-term commitment, we hope to demonstrate that successful conservation models can grow beyond individual conservancies, reaching new landscapes and communities.
Because the future of the wild depends on the future of the people who live within it.
At its heart, our purpose is clear: to secure wildlife, restore biodiversity,
improve livelihoods, and create a hopeful future for people and nature.
“The most important perceived threat to elephants is the loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by ongoing human population expansion and rapid land conversion.”
IUCN
AREAS OF SUPPORT
Making A Difference
We support integrated, community-led systems that:
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Protect and secure wildlife habitats and migration corridors
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Restore degraded land and biodiversity
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Improve soil health, water retention, and grass quality
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Increase livestock health, productivity, and protection from predation
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Reduce human–wildlife conflict through landscape-scale planning
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Generate sustainable income from both livestock and wildlife conservation fees
When conservation works for people, wildlife is safer—and protection endures.
How We Do This?
We turn purpose into action by building local capacity, livelihoods, and wildlife protection together:
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Wildlife protection & landscape stewardship through habitat restoration, regenerative grazing, reforestation, and community-led land management that creates safe, connected spaces for wildlife.
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Sustainable jobs & skills development by creating local employment that directly supports conservation and tourism—so the goods and services used by our lodges and partners are produced within the community.
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This includes training and employment in guiding, ranger support, hospitality, conservation management, and the production of candles, soaps, beadwork, supplies, and planting materials—reducing reliance on external suppliers and keeping value within the landscape.
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Women’s empowerment through Women in the Wild, enabling women to earn dignified, long-term incomes through conservation-aligned enterprises, reducing pressure to engage in environmentally damaging activities such as charcoal burning or deforestation.
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Education & eco-literacy through conservation libraries, school programmes, and hands-on learning that builds pride, skills, and long-term custodianship of land and wildlife.
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Health & resilience by improving access to healthcare and supporting local clinics and veterinary programmes that strengthen both community wellbeing and livestock security.
PEOPLE, LIVELIHOODS & OPPORTUNITIES
Conservation succeeds when it improves daily life.
Futures in the Wild supports initiatives that:
Create meaningful local employment
Encourage entrepreneurship and small business development
Strengthen household resilience through diversified income
Build leadership, pride, and skills across generations
Livelihoods and landscapes must thrive together.
EDUCATION & THE NEXT GENERATION
Long-term conservation begins with understanding.
We support:
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Environmental education in rural schools
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Practical learning around land, wildlife, and climate
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Resources such as conservation libraries and learning tools
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Young people to see conservation as opportunity, not limitation
ENVIRONMENT
Supporting the Enonkishu Conservancy a fundamental buffer zone to the Mara Serengeti ecosystem where wildlife and livestock together are thriving.
We also have created a program called Trees in the Wild where we have created an Indigenous Tree Seedling Nursery and tree growing program in the Greater Mara.
WOMEN IN THE WILD
Women are central to healthy families, strong communities, and resilient ecosystems.
Through Women in the Wild, we support initiatives that:
Enable women and girls to play active roles in conservation
Support entrepreneurship, leadership, and income generation
Encourage environmental stewardship within households
Promote wellbeing, education, and informed family planning in respectful, culturally sensitive ways
HERDS FOR GROWTH
Herds for Growth is a community-led livestock model that uses regenerative grazing and quality-over-quantity herd management to produce healthier animals, stronger market value, reduced predator conflict, and resilient livelihoods that thrive alongside wildlife rather than compete with it.
Watch our story on Futures in the Wild
CONTACT FUTURES IN THE WILD
Maasai Mara, Kenya
+254 728 484 665