John Kamanga

Global Partner: Kenya

...was born and raised as a Maasai pastoralist in the Southern Rift valley. John has a profound understanding of the challenges that coexistence between wildlife and people brings. He was fortunate to have had both a traditional pastoralist upbringing and also a solid grounding in formal education with degrees in both Community Development and Anthropology. Twenty years ago, he was elected as leader of his Maasai community (the people of Olkiramatian) and was able to support the development of their community conservancy, and supporting governance systems before handing over office last year. Over twelve years ago, he co-founded SORALO, in order to help many more communities facing the same issues of land security, livelihoods and living with wildlife.