Dear Friends:

Ol Pejeta has faced another challenging but exciting year in 2010.

With a resumption of tourism after the 2008 post-election violence and an end to the devastating drought of 2009, our financial situation has eased significantly.  With revenue streams improving significantly, we have produced a positive financial performance for the year.

Stronger financials will not only continue to provide the basis for the achievement of our conservation mandate, but will also provide the platform to continue the expansion with our community development plans.

To that end our wildlife populations continue to do spectacularly well.  With good management - and some luck - our rhinos have been spared the current poaching scourge that plagues much of Africa.  Our black rhino population continues to expand, whilst the recently re-introduced northern white rhinos have settled well within their 700 acre enclosure.  Predator populations are also thriving, in particular cheetahs which now number over 30 individuals and are seen by most visitors.  And our chimpanzees, despite an outbreak of bronchopneumonia that resulted in one death, will soon benefit from a new house courtesy of the Arcus Foundation and the World We Want.

As you will be aware, development support to the people living around the Conservancy forms a major aim of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Despite the financially straitened times of the last 24 months, we have continued to provide substantial assistance to our neighbours in the areas of agricultural extension, education, water and health.  With the help of willing donors, we expect the levels of support we are able to provide to continue to grow as we progress towards 2011.

Five years from its initial creation, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy has already become one of the most recognized conservation success stories in Kenya.  With a sound financial platform now almost in place, our challenge over the next five years will be to increase our engagement with local human populations in a manner that achieves environmentally sound economic progress in accordance with national aspirations.  Thus we will assist to place wildlife conservation squarely at the forefront of the developmental agenda as an engine for sustainable growth.

On behalf of all the management on Ol Pejeta may I take this opportunity to thank you all for your support, and to wish you all a very Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Richard Vigne

 
Chief Executive Officer
Ol Pejeta Conservancy