Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary (MES) is a community-owned conservation area with a size of 40 km², originally designed for

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

s and

Encephalartos ''Encephalartos'' is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of ''Encephalartos'' are commonly referred to as bread trees, bread palms or kaffir bread, since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. The ge ...

cycads in

Kwale County Kwale County is a county in the former Coast Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kwale, although Ukunda is the largest town. Kwale County has an estimated population of 866,820. Kwale is mainly an inland county, but has a coastline south of ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. The area is part of an old elephant migratory route between the southern coast and the Tsavo National Parks .

Location

It is located 45 km southwest of

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, below Golini Ridge on both sides of the Manolo River. To the south it borders on the

Shimba Hills National Reserve The Shimba Hills National Reserve is a small National Reserve in the former Coast Province of Kenya, 33 km from Mombasa and 15 km from the coast. The reserve is an area of coastal rainforest, woodland and grassland. It is an important ...

, to the north it is part of the Mwaluganje Forest Reserve.The sanctuary was formed in the early 1990s as a cooperative project between the people of the surrounding Mwaluganje community,

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 1961 and reorganized in 1998 ...

, the Born Free Foundation and the Eden Wildlife Trust.

Ecotourism

MES is an early example of

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

-based-conservation efforts in Kenya, which are very recent trends in eco-tourism and conservation management. In this community-based program, the local people have stopped farming and keeping livestock in the area; instead they

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

d their privately owned property to a community-based trust. The trust manages the sanctuary for the preservation of the crucial ecosystem. In addition it is a valuable source of revenue for the local people, through monies generated by eco-tourism and gate entrance fees. Some of the revenue generating activities include creating paper from elephant dung, bee keeping (honey products), butterfly breeding and biofuel.

Recent developments

A multitude of problems led to a gradual standstill of tourism activities in the two last decades: beginning with a reduced attractiveness due to the translocation of 150 elephants to Tsavo East to reduce human-wildlife conflicts (2006), along with poaching, illegal logging and the closure of the Traveller's Camp inside the area (2014). The road network fell into decay, and since Covid, the main gate has de facto remained closed. The sanctuary has survived mainly thanks to the commitment of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which continues to compensate the landowners despite the loss of visitor income; the trust also re-fenced the entire ecosystem (Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary and

) in 2023/24. Since 2024, the Mwaluganje management has been trying to make visiting the Chitsanze Waterfall near the Golini gate attractive, and to slowly revitalise Mwaluganje as a whole from there. An announcement has been made by the Aspinall Foundation in 2021 that 13 African elephants are to be relocated here from Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, UK - but so far it has remained that way. Since early 2025, Kenya Wildlife Service is translocating herbivores (mainly zebras) from other parks to the adjacent Shimba Hills National Reserve; as there is no fence between the two sanctuaries, this will benefit Mwaluganje in the long run, too.

References

* Parks in Kenya Zoos in Kenya Wildlife sanctuaries of Kenya Kwale County Coast Province Elephant conservation {{CoastKE-geo-stub