Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF) is an organization in Laikipia, Kenya, that has been dedicated to natural resource conservation efforts for over 25 years. The organization began as a membership organization supporting wildlife utilization in the early 1990s and grew to reinforce the benefits of community-based natural resources management in the landscape.
LWF’s membership has grown from an original membership of just ranches to a membership in the thousands comprised of more smallholders and pastoralists, schools, tourism facility owners, and other corporate institutions.
LWF has played a crucial role in leading exercises resulting in landscape management plans for wildlife, water, and forests, as well as supporting devolution. The success of the wildlife conservation model in Laikipia can be attributed to private land commitments, with almost 2/3 of the greater Laikipia landscape contributing to wildlife conservation and rangelands as an underlying land use.
LWF works to bring sound technical solutions to common land use and conservation challenges, and it aimsto link public and private services and funding to Laikipian needs, both internally and with neighboring communities. The Forum has alternately played an advocacy and policy advisory role as well as an implementation role for Laikipian citizens, non-profit organizations, and county and the national government.