SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
A key part of Mukutan's mission is to improve community well-being and livelihoods and be a catalyst for economic empowerment in the landscape. By harnessing the power of sustainable natural resource use, we strive to create opportunities that uplift and support local communities, generating employment, income, and fostering a sense of ownership and pride. By demonstrating that economic prosperity and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand, we pave the way for a future where communities thrive in harmony with the natural world.
Mukutan has developed a range of innovative social enterprises in partnership with local communities
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Mukutan's Africa Botanica initiative practises sustainable wild harvesting of indigenous plants, creating products for the cosmetics, teas, and food industries. Rooted in rich ethno-botanical knowledge, this project enhances local livelihoods by conserving biodiversity. Our on-site distillation facility extracts essential oils from plants like leleshwa and sinoni, addressing environmental challenges posed by the leleshwa shrub. Employing 50 community members, mainly women, this project fosters innovation, research, and the development of organic products, contributing to the growing global organic cosmetics market.
AFRICA
BOTANICA
SOUL
COAL
Mukutan pioneers a sustainable approach to address the invasive shrub Leleshwa (Tarchonanthus camphoratus). This indigenous species, known for its dense growth and high fire risk, regenerates very rapidly once coppiced and therefore a perfect renewable source of wood fuel for biomass and eco-charcoal production. Harvested along fire-management blocks, the wood is processed using efficient Adam Retort Kilns which combust bi-products and cause minimal pollution. Our eco-charcoal project engages over 50 women and youth, creating high-quality, carbon neutral charcoal and providing much needed employment.
WILD
AVOCADO
Mukutan Wild Avocado empowers local farmers with an alternative to labour-intensive crops. Through our hi-tech avocado nursery, we've provided 20,000 top-quality Hass avocado seedlings to 180 contracted farmers in a transformative out-growers scheme.
Through the employment of a skilled agronomist and marketing team Mukutan has linked these farmers directly to exporters cutting out the traders and giving farmers a better price. In the first season of 2024 over 31 tons of avocado were harvested and exported, employing 65 youth and generating over 2 million kes in income for the farmers.
WILD
HONEY
Mukutan Conservancy has equipped community members with 1000 modern beehives and apiary training and has developed a brand of honey and bee-products for sale in Kenya’s retail market. The Mukutan Wild Honey project was established in 2016 in partnership with the local Pokot community, as a way to foster a stewardship of the environment whilst also providing an income. There are 150 langstroth beehives within the conservancy and 200 langstroth and 600 Kenya Top Bar hives in the community.
The conservancy’s 150 beehives have been placed in different locations (apiaries) to make the most of the diverse forage flora of the conservancy. Many of the plant species that the bees forage on have medicinal properties, and the Mukutan team is establishing a floral calendar for each apiary.
The project is delivered through 40 women and youth groups who will make between US$ 75, 000- 150, 000 per year on sale of honey once hives are fully established. A tree planting project is being developed alongside this enterprise to restore key indigenous bee-forage flora that have been lost in community areas due to illegal charcoal making.
LIVESTOCK
After a several decade hiatus from ranching that allowed the Conservancy’s ecosystem to rebound in spectacular ways, Mukutan has begun integrating livestock into our landscape management model based on the increasing evidence that controlled grazing emulating the movements of large ungulates (whose populations have diminished drastically over the past century) can support the health of the landscape. It also provides critical support to our pastoralist neighbours whose traditional rangelands are degrading rapidly under pressure from unprecedented livestock numbers and climatic changes.
Beginning in 2015, Mukutan Conservancy has provided drought relief grazing to the pastoralist communities on our boundary through iterations of structured livestock programmes. The most recent expansion of this programme was implemented during the historic drought of 2022, when the Conservancy provided pasture and water to 6,000 community cattle in designated areas following strict regulations to ensure the protection of wildlife and plant species. These programmes have also helped to reduce insecurity in the region by giving pastoralists legal grazing options in a region where resource scarcity leads to frequent conflict, and has established a mutually beneficial relationship with our neighbours.
Building off this relationship, Mukutan is devising an innovative grazing programme that will integrate breed improvement, livestock-to-market avenues, and provide important education and resources to help integrate community cattle into the livestock economy and demonstrate the compatibility of sustainable livestock management and conservation ecology.