Home/What shapes a safari/Conservation & Community
Conservation & Community
What shapes a safari · 04

Conservation & Community

Where
Conservancies Edward works with directly
Time needed
Folded into the itinerary
Approach
Private
Led by
Edward
Overview

What a conservancy fee is actually for

Most guests pay a conservancy fee without ever finding out what it funds. Edward will tell you plainly: land leases that pay landowning families directly for keeping that ground open to wildlife instead of fencing or farming it, salaries for the scouts and rangers doing daily anti-poaching patrols, and, in a lot of cases, the reason a particular stretch of land still has wildlife on it at all.

This isn't a separate add-on trip — it's woven into safaris that already pass through private conservancies bordering the Mara and elsewhere. Where it's relevant, Edward will point out what's being funded, introduce you to the scouts and guides who are actually from the area, and answer honestly when something doesn't have a tidy answer.

"If I can't tell you specifically what a fee pays for, I don't put it in the itinerary as a selling point. Guests deserve a straight answer, not a green sticker on a brochure."

How this fits in
  • Best paired withAny safari through a private conservancy
  • What it fundsScout salaries, land leases, anti-poaching patrols
  • TransparencyEdward will tell you plainly what a fee does and doesn't cover
Ask Edward about this Message on WhatsApp
What this can include

What's included

Less a set of activities than a way the itinerary is explained as you go.

Conservancy fees
What a fee funds, in plain terms — not a marketing line
Community-run camps and staff
Guiding and camp staff drawn from the area, where that's how a camp is actually run
Meeting the scouts
The rangers doing daily anti-poaching patrols, not a photo-op with a uniform
Honest answers
If something doesn't have a clean answer, Edward says so rather than smoothing it over
How Edward approaches this

A few principles he doesn't bend on.

Land leases

Where your conservancy fees actually go

Explained plainly, not left as a line item on an invoice

Local staff

Guides and scouts drawn from the area

Preferring camps and conservancies that actually employ locally

No greenwashing

If a claim can't be backed up, it doesn't go in

No unverifiable sustainability claims dressed up as fact

Where this comes up

Safaris that make room for it.

Classic Big 5 Safari
6 Days

Classic Big 5 Safari

Six days, three regions, one deliberate route to the Big Five — Samburu's dry north, the rhino sanctuary at Lake Nakuru, and the plains of the Masai Mara.

$2,150 per person
View this safari →
Kenya Ultimate Safari
12 Days

Kenya Ultimate Safari

12 days across 6 of Kenya's best landscapes — Samburu's dry north, the rhino conservancies of Laikipia and Nakuru, the Mara, Lake Naivasha, and Amboseli.

$4,720 per person
View this safari →
What else shapes a safari

Other experiences

Ready when you are

Let's shape this around your dates.

Tell David when you're thinking of travelling and how many of you there are — he'll reply personally, usually within a day.