Mara Ripoi conservancy in Maasai Mara is one of a handful of wildlife reserves where some of the key decision-makers are Maasai women, who are carving out space in a domain long dominated by men. The reserve borders Maasai Mara, Kenya’s enormous game park, which spans more than 1,500 sq km in the Great Rift Valley. Along its borders, many former Maasai cattle-grazing areas have been converted into wildlife conservancies where controlled grazing is allowed. Maasai societies are highly patriarchal, and governance of the conservancies has typically fallen to men. Now, however, a new generation of women are taking up leadership roles and guiding jobs, and Ripoi is one of the few conservancies in the greater Mara ecosystem where women hold administrative rights: making decisions on cattle grazing zones and financial matters and discussing employment opportunities – including whether jobs go to women.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
