#Porini / #GamewatcherSafaris News

I am writing to you as one of our guests who has stayed with us in recent years to give you the chance to become a Member of a special category of safari enthusiasts and supporters of conservation: the "Friends of Porini".

Many of our customers over the years have expressed a deep interest in our Conservation work and voiced support for our key mission and unique approach to using small-scale responsible tourism as a way of paying for conservation.

Our partnership with the local Maasai communities adjacent to the national parks, through the leasing of extensive tracts of land made up of hundreds of individually owned plots owned by local families, has created vast protected habitats for wildlife in the form of Conservancies that today are teeming with big cats, elephants and so many more species that enjoy the safety of these protected areas while providing great viewing pleasure to guests staying at our Porini Camps.

Lion by Porini Camps guest Matt Caldwell

This win-win approach to Conservation and to offering an unparalleled safari experience to our guests comes however with a significant price tag that has depended on income from tourism to our Porini Camps to pay for the land lease and running costs of the conservancies.

Elephant by Porini Camps guest Kathi Hammer

As a member of the "Friends of Porini" you will play an important role in protecting a large acreage of wildlife habitat in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Amboseli eco-systems and at the same time enjoy the equivalent of substantially reduced rates on stays at the Porini Camps over the next three year plus other benefits!

The average cost per acre of leasing and managing our conservancies for the next three years is close to US$70 per acre. Since first starting the conservancy concept at Selenkay Conservancy over 20 years ago followed by the Mara 15 years ago, we have invested millions of US dollars into leasing and managing the conservancies.

Our annual leasing and operating costs for the Conservancies in which we are involved, including having Wardens and Rangers drawn from the local Maasai communities, plus the costs of employment of local community members in the camps and contributions to sponsoring community projects, is currently over US$1.3 million per year. And in addition to the costs of leasing, in order to keep the conservancies intact and to prevent parcels of land being sold to outside interests inimical to conservation, we have had to step in and provide funds for the purchase of plots of land within the Conservancy if any individual landowners decide they wish to sell.

In order to raise the funds needed to pay the leases as well as to buy any plots of land that would otherwise be taken out of conservation, to keep the conservancies going for the next three years and into the future, we are offering selected guests the chance to be involved positively in conserving and protecting vital areas of wildlife habitat by joining our Friends of Porini programme and by doing so, to enjoy stays at our Porini Camps at significantly reduced rates for the next three years.

Here is how the programme works, starting from 1st March 2019:

1. PLATINUM sponsorship:

protect 850 acres of wilderness over the next 3 years and

receive 67 nights in a double tent for 2 persons at any of our Porini Camps to be used over the next 3 years. Subscription: $ 60,000 US.

2. GOLD sponsorship:

protect 640 acres of wilderness over the next 3 years and

receive 50 nights in a double tent for 2 persons at any of our Porini Camps to be used over the next 3 years. Subscription: $ 45,000 US.

3. SILVER sponsorship:

protect 500 acres of wilderness over the next 3 years and

receive 38 nights in a double tent for 2 persons at any of our Porini Camps to be used over the next 3 years. Subscription: $ 35,000 US.

4. BRONZE sponsorship:

protect over 350 acres of wilderness over the next 3 years and

receive 25 nights in a double tent for 2 persons at any of our Porini Camps to be used over the next 3 years. Subscription: $ 25,000 US.

Our Friends of Porini programme will bring together like-minded safari enthusiasts such as you who want to actively participate in our Conservation work from afar while securing a generous allocation of night stays at any Porini Camp for more memorable safari adventures over the next three years.

Click here for full details on this new Conservancy sponsorship offer. If you have questions that remain unanswered after reading the details, I would be more than pleased to respond to them.

Please email me at jake (or simply hit "reply" to this email) to indicate the level of Conservancy sponsorship that you wish to subscribe to.

We will acknowledge your application and will send you details of how to remit the subscription to our bank account in Nairobi and you will then receive confirmation of your Friends of Porini membership which will help to protect the wildlife habitat and your entitlement to the Friends of Porini nights in our camps which you can start to use immediately.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Jake Grieves-Cook

Founder & Chairman
Gamewatchers Safaris Ltd, Nairobi, Kenya