Description

LUMO is a community led animal sanctuary and was formed by the Lualenyi, Mramba Communal grazing area and the Oza group ranch. This combination is thus what gave it its name, thus the abbreviation LUMO. It is a vital wildlife corridor between Tsavo West and Tsavo East National Parks.

LUMO Community Wildlife Sanctuary came into being in 1997 when three of the Ranches situated in the Tsavo West Zone namely Lualenyi, Mramba and Oza merged to form a wildlife conservancy. Lumo is part of the historical elephant migration corridor linking Tsavo Ecosystem to the Shimba Hills in the neighboring Kwale County. Lualenyi was established in 1965 as a Limited Ranching Company, Oza and Mramba established in the 1980 and 1991 respectively, are communally owned. Together they add to 5288 shareholders.

In 1997, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed among the three ranches, formally establishing the LUMO Community Wildlife Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was registered as Self-Help Group in 1998 and later as a Trust in the year 2001.

LUMO membership is solely drawn from the Taita Ethnic Community. Organizational structure consist of the Board of Trustees is comprised of nine members (i.e. the chairman, secretary, treasurer and 6 others from member ranches equally). The sanctuary has a manager, accounts clerk and 14 game scouts professionally trained by KWS at Manyani field training school.

The area is rich in animal diversity with over 102 animals of which 61 are large mammals and over 350 bird species being recorded. The land is mainly rolling Savannah and the stunning views from over lodge (Lion Bluff) stretch to Tanzania pare mountains and legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The Conservancy was establish to mainly to mainly benefit the community and it boasts of 100% employment of its staffs, from the manager, accounts clerk to its dedicated rangers. The community also gets bursaries from the sanctuary which is devoted to improvement in infrastructure, education and health to neighboring community. With the drilled borehole funded by AWF, locals from villages around do come to Lumo to fetch water.

The initial development of Lumo has been possible due to funding from two donors. The European Union, through the Biodiversity Conservation program (BCP) has financed LUMO for developing of the sanctuary’s infrastructure, while USAID through the conservation of resources through enterprise (CORE) program to develop a tented lodge which they now have leased to a private investor at a fee. African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) participated in the completion of the lodge (Lions Bluff) and is the development partner.

The objectives of the Conservancy are:-

• To promote biodiversity conservation
• To help in poverty alleviation and improve the living standards of the community sustainably.
• To encourage tourism related enterprises and other environmental, economical and social complementary land use.

Vision:

“To be the leading tourist destination centre in eastern and southern Africa.”

Mission:

“Lumo is a community based conservancy that provides ecotourism services to protect the wildlife of Tsavo.”

Objectives:

The main object of the LUMO Community Wildlife Trust is solely for the purpose of the relief of poverty or distress of the members and the advancement of education within the Taita Community.

Other objectives include;

• To promote tourism to LUMO around the world.
• To carry out general public education in order to create conservation awareness in order to gain public support for conservation.
• To encourage national and international co-operation in formulating laws that are friendly to conservation in all its aspects.
• To encourage provisions of public recreation areas to help in preserving the objects of beauty, geological, prehistoric, historical archaeological and other scientific interests.
• To liaise with the government, non-governmental organizations and international agencies involved in tourism development projects, including proposal writings,   evaluation of sustainable utilization of resources, protected areas, management plans  and harmonization of the various interests and parties affected by tourists in anyway.
• To protect and manage all natural resources, living and non-living including wildlife and their habitats, including land for crops ores soil, air and water within the trust area.
• To establish sanctuaries to protect wildlife species and allow wild animals and plants to breed in safety.
• To protect water catchments and scenic areas in order to ensure that water is always available and soil erosion will not occur.

Rules & Regulations

Please note that ANIMALS HAVE RIGHT OF WAY at all times. Please help us to preserve this fantastic part of the Tsavo Eco System by adhering to the sanctuary rules and regulations.

Wildlife & Birds

Title	Conservation Status
African elephant	Vulnerable
African lion	Vulnerable
Cheetah	Vulnerable
Leopard	Vulnerable
Striped hyaena	Near Threatened
Lesser kestrel	Least Concern
Denhams Bustard	Near Threatened
Martial Eagle	Least Concern
Abdims Storks	Least Concern
Great white pelican	Least Concern
Goliath heron	Least Concern
Verreaux s eagle	Least Concern

SEE ALL