Kenya

Uganda &
Rwanda

Ethiopia

The Sudan

The Congo

Botswana

Namibia

Zambia &
Zimbabwe

South Africa

Tanzania

Making A

Difference

With the great privilege of adventuring in these beautiful places comes the equally great responsibility of protecting them for the generations to come: a responsibility the Roberts family has embraced wholeheartedly.

The Roberts family has a long history in Kenya, and an equally long tradition of preserving its wildernesses and wild things - and generally making things better wherever they can. Tourism is a passion, but more crucially the means of ensuring the sustainability of the game reserves, conservancies, national parks, and - especially close to Richard's heart - the Mara Elephant Project, not to mention the many other areas and projects the family is involved in.

Mara Elephant Project

Three generations of the Roberts family have been integrally and passionately involved in conservation in Kenya, and in 2011 Richard and Liz followed suit, founding the Mara Elephant Project. The project targets ivory poaching and human-elephant conflict, which are the two main threats to the Mara's elephant population.

It is estimated that an elephant is poached every 15 minutes, putting them on a clear trajectory to extinction; simultaneously, the Maasai Mara's exponential population growth pushes humans into elephant rangelands. Grasslands are being cultivated for crops, and a herd can demolish a farmer's entire harvest overnight: elephants have come to be viewed as a pest, and are often killed as a result.

The Mara Elephant Project deploys elephant collars that generate real-time data on the location of individuals and therefore their herds. With four patrol teams and a Rapid Response Unit on foot, vehicle and helicopter, tracking allows the teams deter elephants from places they aren't welcome, as well as get to injured and poached animals in the quickest possible time.

The project also works with communities to help them build elephant-deterrent chilli fences, move grazing herds away from their crops, and educate them on the importance of helping us to save these majestic creatures so that they'll be around for generations to come.

Me to We

WE is a global enterprise that creates and provides products and experiences that have a positive social impact, as a means of generating funds for their organisation called Free The Children.

Free The Children in turn supports WE Villages: a project seeking to provide education, water, health, food and opportunity to rural communities as a means of giving children a means of rising out of poverty.

WE's chief method of fundraising is through arranging trips centred on immersion into a new culture, and visiting communities partnered with We Charity. Not only do 50% of the profits of the trip go back to We Charity, but also the experience incorporates contributing to sustainable development projects such as building classrooms, setting up clean water systems, and beading with Masai.

One of their focus-countries is Kenya, and in the Maasai Mara they have forged a close relationship with Richard's Camp. Spending a few days visiting their projects can be transformative, humbling and enriching - and we thoroughly recommend it to all of our guests.