It is no coincidence that Elewana chose the Mara North Conservancy as the location for the opening of its latest property, Little Elephant Pepper Camp. With the original Elephant Pepper camp being one of the first tourism partners in the region, the importance of this area bordering the Maasai Mara National Park, has always been strikingly obvious. The Mara North Conservancy, spanning just over 72,000 acres, is a privately leased conservation area that forms the north-western flank of the Greater Mara Ecosystem. The protected area is a working conservation partnership between 783 individual Maasai landowners and twelve tourism operators, of whom Elephant Pepper Camp was one of the founding members.
The Conservancy was founded to create a viable economic alternative to encourage landowners to work together to ensure that critical wildlife dispersion corridors remained open in order to preserve the Mara ecosystem. The wildebeest migration crosses the reserve boundary in both directions and elephants, lions and most resident game spend a significant part of their year outside the Maasai Mara National Park. The tourism partnership brings a reliable constant to the funding required to ensure that this region remains a safe haven for much of the precious flora and fauna.
