Kiplombe Conservancy & Kiplombe Area (Beta-Version)

Created by Clara-Marie Putschky and Gabriel Glenz (University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde) in cooperation with the 50 Treasures of Kenya

The Kiplombe Community Conservancy (KCC) lies to the northwest of Nakuru, in a distance of about 45km from Kenya’s fourth largest city. It covers an area of approximately 290ha at the Western rim of the East African rift valley.

Stretching from the valley floor to the peak of the name giving Mt. Kiplombe, the Conservancy boasts of a high ecological diversity worth protecting, including a patch of indigenous rainforest that is connected to Mt. Londiani’s vast forests and other governmental forest reserves further to the West.

The Conservancy has significant potential for sustainable tourism, such as hiking, biking or birdwatching, since KCC and its immediate surroundings boast a volcanic caldera with a gorge running from the ancient crater to the plains, forming picturesque landscapes that offer wonderful vistas. The crater is part of a network of GEO parks in Baringo County’s that stretch over to the rift valley, while archeological findings of early man and extinct animal species add to its list of potential attractions and activities for visitors.

KCC is surrounded by the three villages of Orinie, Nakurtawei and Posta, whose communities are the owners of the land. The elders of the area had set aside Kiplombe Mountain for protection as early as 1962. Until the 1970s, the region hosted a population of black rhino before the remaining specimen were translocated to Nakuru National Park. The Conservancy in the current form was constituted in 2017.

Sights of big game in the caldera and neighbouring forests such as buffaloes were frequent as recent as 2014. Since then, the forest has been under rising pressure due to wild fires, wood cutting, charcoal burning, poaching, and unmanaged grazing that have resulted in serious degradation of the ecosystem. If not countered, human activities may lead to its irreversible destruction. (Text from 50 TOK website)