Ol Pejeta Conservancy
From a working cattle ranch in colonial Kenya, to a trailblazer of conservation innovation. Today, Ol Pejeta is the largest black rhino sanctuary in east Africa, and home to two of the world’s last remaining northern white rhino. It is the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, in a Sanctuary established to rehabilitate animals rescued from the black market. It has some of the highest predator densities in Kenya, and still manages a very successful livestock programme. Ol Pejeta also seeks to support the people living around its borders, to ensure wildlife conservation translates to better education, healthcare and infrastructure for the next generation of wildlife guardians.
In 2004, the ranch was purchased by the U.K.-based conservation organisation, Fauna &Flora International (FFI), with the financial backing of the Arcus Foundation, a private international philanthropic organisation founded by Jon Stryker. The land purchase was wholly funded by a $15 million donation from the Arcus Foundation, which worked in tandem with FFI and the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to secure the 90,000 acres of open Savannah grassland and convert it to a national land trust.
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Northern White Rhino
The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros, is one of two subspecies of the white rhinoceros (the other being the southern white rhinoceros). Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, this subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands. As of 19 March 2018 there were only two known rhinos of this subspecies left, both of which are female; barring the existence of unknown or misclassified male northern white rhinos elsewhere in Africa, this makes the subspecies functionally extinct.
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Rhino Memorial
The Memorial is located in the east of the Conservancy, and honours the lives of all the Ol Pejeta rhinos that have been killed in the poaching epidemic. A total of sixteen gravestones stand underneath the tree; a stark reminder of the devastation of the illegal wildlife trade.
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