Accreditation

Eco Training East Africa Projects

ECO TRAINING KENYA


Our Vision

We want to establish formal guide training in Kenya in association with the established academic and government institutions, to service the needs of the industry. To do this we will create a professional guide training school based on the proven Eco Training in South African model.


Our mission

Eco Training’s mission is to establish professional guide training, to increase the standard of guiding throughout Kenya. We believe one of the key factors in the conservation of wildlife is the responsibility of the guides.

There are more than 6000 safari guides employed in the industry in East Africa responsible for guiding tens of thousands of tourists each year. Based on feedback from tourists, professional guides and safari operators, we believe that there is a real need to supply a quality training service to these guides in order to improve their guiding abilities, to make them more responsible and sensitive to their clients’ needs and the environment and to give them a sense of pride in what they do. From Many of these guides, the tourism industry is the only career option available.

* To offer professional safari guide training to unqualified potential guides, existing guides in the industry, safari and tour operators and to compliment formal academic tourism qualifications offered by Kenyan and international colleges and universities.

* To create a sustainable and profitable business model.

* To aim to offer international students exposure to the prolific wildlife and conservation in Kenya.

* To enhance and influence further conservation of the Maasai Mara and Tsavo ecosystems and Kenya’s wildlife.

There are approximately 600 people involved in guiding in Kenya alone. Once the training school is operational we will target up to 20 guides per course and 10 courses a year. This translates to 30 years of training if we were training at full capacity i.e. 200 guides a year. There is clearly a need for this training and we are qualified to do it.

The camp will provide employment to the community and rental income to the local landlords.


Accreditation

The Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association is an examining body whose aim is to improve the quality of Driver Guides for the Kenya tourist industry. Tourists expect and are entitled to be accompanied by qualified guides during their visits to Kenya. The KPSGA is committed to ensuring this is the case.

There are three levels of examination – Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Association’s constitution states that three years must elapse before candidates are eligible to proceed to the next level. This ensures well grounded knowledge supported by sustained practical experience.


First Course Location – Rukinga Camp, Tsavo

The Tsavo ecosystem is an area of 43,000 km and is one of the largest and most important wildlife refuges in Africa. The core of this area is formed by Tsavo East and West National Parks, which together occupy approximately 21,000 km and Mkomazi Game Reserve with occupies about 5000 km in Tanzania. The vast are adjoining the southern arms of Tsavo East and west comprise privately owned plots of land that are mainly utilized for livestock grazing or limited agriculture. The exception to this is Rukinga Sanctuary, and 80,000 acres of land that is managed by wildlife works for the benefit of wildlife. Camp Tsavo is situated in the centre of Rukinga Sanctuary and is where our camp is based. The camp is set out like a traditional African village surrounded by endless views of the African Bush.

The total human population in the area bordering Rukinga is approaching 12,000 individuals of whom the vast majority are subsistence farmers. In the past Capm Tavo has worked with six villages; Bungule, Jora, Rukanga, Kiteghe, Makwasinyi and Kisimenyii. Sasenyi Village also borders the sanctuary and is the closest village to Camp Tsavo, only 13 KM away (30 minutes by road trough the sanctuary). Historically this are has been to harsh for people to exploit and so people only started settling here over the last century. Local indigenous people offer a wealth of rich and diverse cultures and traditions. Tribes include the Wakama, Wataita, Maasai and the Waliangulu.


Eco Training Kenya Partners

Eco Training South Africa, Lex Hes and Anton Lategan have partnered with Ian Johnson.

Ian Johnson – Partner

Ian Johnson is a Professional Safari Guide, Eco-tourism Consultant and Professional Photographer. Ian qualified as a microbiologist and studied conservation in the Cape. He has lived and worked throughout Africa’s Great Rift Valley in some of Africa’s greatest wildlife destinations from South Africa to Northern Kenya to Egypt. As a photographer Ian has received several Southern African and International Awards for his wildlife and natural history photography, he runs a successful photography business and does photo journalism for numerous publications namely Africa Geographic, Msafiri, & Conde Naste House and Garden. He is also a freelance cameraman for the BBC Natural History Unit, having worked on a number of documentaries, including Big Cat Diaries in the Maasai Mara and is a specialist consultant on Leopards for the unit. Through his Eco-consulting business he has taught and worked with guides, trackers and wardens from the forests and gorillas of Uganda, to the vast Serengeti/Mara, along the entire East African Coast, to the Okavango Delta and Linyati ecosystems, to the Sabi sands and Northern Maputuland biosphere reserves. Ian’s motivation for training is in that he fully believes the guides of Africa are one of the most important keys to its survival.

Ian’s Mission is “To Ensure People never stove loving Africa through initiating an everlasting love affair with the magical continent by creating a sense of responsibility for its future”.


The Partners of Eco Training have trained guides for:

* Abercrombie and Kent – Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana

* Heritage Hotels – Kenya

* CC Africa – Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa

* Royal African Safaris – Kenya, Botswana

* Lewa Wildlife conservancy – Kenya

* Ugandan wildlife Authority – Uganda

* Tanzanian Photographic Safaris – Tanzania

* Wilderness safaris – Southern Africa

* Chiawa Camp –Zambia

* KZN Wildlife – Emzemvelo (old Natal Parks Board) Thembi, Umfolozi, Hluhluwe, Itala

* Milwane, Mkhaya Lodges – Swaziland

* Shamwari and Amakhala – Eastern cape

* University of Georgia – United States of America

* University of Illinois – United States of America


Eco Training East Africa Projects

Improved guiding standards for Kenya.

Establishing professional standards encourages repeat business and growth for Kenyan tourism.

Creating positive ambassadors for Kenya.

Educating future Kenyan trainers.

Establish better partnerships between local communities and tourism for the sustainability of the region.

Conservation of larger areas of marginal land.

Koiyaki Guiding School offers a one year course with approximately 20 graduates a year.

Educate and influence local communities to be more conservation orientated.

Play a role in expansion of wildlife conservancies.

Wherever our training school is situated, another area will be protected for conservation. The principal of the training is conservation based which will produce future conservationists for the industry.

The training school itself will be a conservation model which could be used as a template for future building of tourism camps/lodges.