Regenarating the Greater Maasai Mara's Grasslands
The savannas of Kenya’s Greater Mara ecosystem are under threat.
This vital landscape offers a powerful starting point for our sustainable development movement — and regenerative grazing could be the key to restoring balance between people, livestock, and nature.
ENVIRONNEMENT
The often highly degraded savannas of the Greater Mara, coupled with its fairly dependable rainfall and the mild climate resulting from the above 1500 m elevation offer the perspective of measurable results within months of adopting regenerative grazing practices.
Society
The Maasai’s approach to grazing is often haphazard, unconcerted and unplanned. Under the continuous grazing regimes that usually result, the grasses never have time to recover. Over time they become exhausted and die, and the savannas desertifies.
CULTURE
In the region, the Maasai are aware of the degradation of their lands and show an openness to the adoption of alternative grazing methods. A shift towards sustainable regenerative grazing practices will require the transmission of knowhow and the development of concerted grazing plans at the community level.
ECONOMY
In the Greater Mara many Maasai also depend on tourism which depends in turn on healthy savannas: without it there are fewer charismatic herbivores (elephants, gnus, zebras, antelopes…), no carnivores (lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas) and consequently fewer tourists.
Our findings from the Greater Mara region have the potential to inform and inspire sustainable practices among pastoralist communities in other ecosystems.
What is regenerative grazing?
Our priorities
Our priorities include the fight against poverty, biodiversity loss and desertification. They are interdependent and in link with the pillars of sustainable development. The 4 pillars:
1 - The soils
The capacity of soils to sequester carbon extracted from atmospheric CO2 in the form of organic matter, or humus, is well known. On a planetary scale it amounts to billions of tons. A soil rich in humus sustains more life, is better aerated and allows better water infiltration and retention. This stimulates plant growth and that is the beginning of a virtuous cycle sequestering yet more carbon for the benefit of the ecosystem and the climate of the planet.
The resilience of an ecosystem increases with the organic matter content of its soils
2 - The Grasses
In the savannas of the Greater Mara it is mostly grasses and forbs that can protect the soils. Unfortunately, all too often a very large percentage of these soils, sometimes close to 100%, is bare, scorched by the sun and beaten by the rains. Regenerative grazing is the only known tool with which we can economically remedy this at the required scale.
A bare and unprotected soil cannot fulfil its functions
3 - The ecosystem
A simplified savanna ecosystem consists of grasses and forbs which feed numerous wild herbivores, which in turn feed large carnivores, and of the Maasai who own the land and graze their livestock on it. The plants are the central pillar on which both the ecological and socio-economical health of the region rests. Proper management of these savannas can only succeed with the full cooperation of the Maasai.
The maasai depend on healthy savannas
4 - The Community
In this region, where there is no industry and a lot of poverty, the Maasai’s principal sources of revenue are drawn from their livestock and from the countless tourists who come to observe the regions iconic wild megafauna. Both these revenue sources depend on healthy savanna ecosystems.
regenerative grazing benefits the maasai while sequestering carbon and fighting global warming
© MGM 2023
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